Friendship Contract
by ExtremeSaucicity
Summary: Really, seriously, this was his grade A material and in all of her seventeen years, nothing's prepared her for this caliber of flirting. Mostly because, you know, the idea of the school's most popular boy flirting with her was hilariously and disturbingly absurd. And yet, it was still happening.
1. Parties and Players

A/N: Yes, okay, _yes. _It's yet _another_ Austin and Ally high school AU.

What? All the other kids were doing it and I wanted to be cool, too.

Disclaimer: I do not own Austin and Ally. I merely borrow them, dress them up, and act out scenarios with them. Not unlike dolls.

* * *

There's rumors of a huge end of summer bash the Saturday night before school starts up again and while Ally hears about them, they don't catch her interest. Oh no, never, not in a _million years_ would she be caught dead at one of those parties, with the drinking and the partying and the grossly inappropriate dancing.

She laughs at the idea of them, scoffs at them, even. Seriously, never. _Never_ ever, never.

* * *

_Well, I've been wrong before,_ she thinks wryly as she stands in a corner of Jenny Graham's living room, wanting desperately to go back home to her warm bed and collection of Jane Austen novels. Instead, she sighs and glares with all her might at a Latina girl, dancing crazily in the midst of the make shift dance floor that is Jenny's other half of the spacious living room. She glares harder and curses her friend for convincing her to come as the designated driver.

Holy _crap_, this night is going to _suck_, Ally realizes with a sinking feeling. She crosses her arms and leans all the way back against the wall and decides to just wait it out until Trish reaches her limit, and when that happens, her role is to swoop in and take her home before she can do anything too embarrassing. She's not sure whether she's glad or annoyed that Trish's alcohol tolerance is pretty damn high.

A shoulder bumps hers and she jumps a bit, turning quickly to the side. She frowns as she looks into the glassy, blue eyes of Jason Crow, her school's quarterback. She eyes him wearily and finally says, "Hi, Jason." She takes a step back to avoid the smell of alcohol on his breath.

He grins at her as he slurs, "Hey, what's up? You're, uh, you're..." he pauses, stumbling over his feet and words, before pointing at her excitedly when her name finally clicks in his foggy mind, "Your name's Natasha, right?"

A beat passes. "Close. It's 'Ally'."

He frowns in confusion and scratches his head like a dumbfounded monkey. "Uh. Weren't you my lab partner last year?"

"No. That was _Stacey_." Ally points to a cute brunette across the room. "She's over there, if you wanted to hit on her."

He follows her finger and squints at the brunette. Then he punches Ally on the shoulder, who tries not to fall over from the brute force of it, and grins toothily. "Thanks, dude!"

"Still 'Ally'," she winces wryly as he stumbles drunkenly toward an unsuspecting Stacey. "Ow," she mumbles as an afterthought. She's about to reach up and rub her shoulder when she hears a chuckle behind her.

"Huh, I remember that chemistry class," a voice says, sounding amused, "You two _were_ lab partners."

She whirls around and blinks in surprise, not expecting to meet the devilish smirk and twinkling brown eyes of Austin Moon, the most popular boy in her grade. He'd transferred to their school during the second half of Junior year and within weeks, had climbed the social ranks faster than their peers thought possible.

Other than that one chemistry class, where he borrowed her notes on a daily basis, they had nothing in common. She remembers, very clearly, all of their previous moments of interaction; none of them are particularly fond memories.

So yeah, it takes her a moment to get over the initial weirdness that is the school's resident IT Boy talking to her willingly instead of asking for her awesomely thorough and color-coordinated chemistry notes.

Ally realizes that maybe she'd been staring a bit too long for what could be considered socially acceptable. Shaking herself out of it, she finally gives a small, casual shrug. "I'm not the one with a crush on him," she says.

His eyebrows raise and he pauses from taking a sip from his red solo cup. He looks across the room and sees Stacey helping the drunk jock sit down on a nearby couch. "Really?" he muses with an impressed scoff, "That was pretty cool of you."

She opens her mouth, closes it, and opens it again. "Uh, thank you?"

Austin continues to look amused. "You're very welcome." When she does a short, little awkward nod without looking him in the eye, he grins. "Jeez, it's like you've never gotten a compliment before," he teases as he smirks flirtatiously at her, "That's hard to believe, cute girl like you."

She gapes for half a second at the comment and hopes he won't notice the light rosy dusting across her cheeks. "It's not that," she says with a wave of her hand and a roll of her eyes, "It's just—" and then she hesitates, not quite sure how to point out that they've never really spoken to each other before and how this whole conversation's throwing her off.

Because really, talking to him has been weird enough but now he's _flirting with her?_ What _is _this? The Twilight Zone? Holy hell, this evening seriously could _not_ get any more bizarre. She turns pinker and mutters, "Um, well... Never mind," and starts to turn away from him, fully intent on running and hiding.

"Hey, whoa, wait up!" he says. He reaches out and grabs her wrist, pulling her back to him. "You can't just leave me hanging like that!" he laughs. He tilts his head to the side, and Ally can't help but think it makes him look far more innocent than what should be allowed, considering his reputation.

She sighs and looks at him, notices that he seems much more _entertained_ than genuinely curious. "We had chemistry together last semester and you're choosing _now_ to flirt with me?" she asks dryly with a raised eyebrow. Then she looks down at his hand that was still on her wrist pointedly.

Austin immediately stops the little, intimate circles he'd been drawing with his thumb on the inside of her wrist. He gently drops her hand and has the decency to look a little sheepish. He laughs a bit, but he doesn't sound nervous or embarrassed. Then with a playful shrug, he says, "Well, it was worth a shot." He eyes her small form appreciatively and somehow manages to not make it nearly as sleazy as most guys would. "I wasn't kidding when I said you were cute, though."

Ally frowns at the compliment, determined not to let it get to her as she flashes back to that one time when she found him pinning the head cheerleader up against her locker with his tongue down her throat. She had tapped him on the shoulder and deadpanned, "Hate to break you two lovebirds up, but I really need my math book." His response had been to impressively roll himself and his tasty cheerleader over two lockers without breaking mouth to mouth contact.

And on top of all of that, whenever he had asked for her chemistry notes, he had called her 'Molly' each and every time. She never bothered to correct him.

So considering his history of locker-defiling and note-borrowing, this cute-calling was entirely new territory for her.

Obviously, her brain still hasn't completely processed the fact that Austin Moon had just called her cute, _twice,_ because kind of stupidly, she blurts out, "Do you even know my name?"

He blinks at her bemusedly and then rubs the back of his neck. "Well... I thought it was Molly, but, uh, I heard you tell Jason that it's Ally... so, um," he pauses, frowning at her, "Why didn't you ever correct me?"

She rolls her eyes and points out, "If you couldn't read my name in giant block letters across the front of my chemistry notebook, you were obviously a lost cause."

His jaw drops a little and holy crap, were his cheeks turning _pink_? "Oh," he mutters with a wince, "Sorry."

"It's okay." Ally smirks a little. "You're not known for your intelligence and skills of observation."

Austin's eyebrow lifts a little at that. "Yeah?" he asks, his voice dropping low, "And what exactly am I known for?" He leans toward her a little and her back bumps against the wall. He places a hand against the wall and half-boxes her in. His smirk is devilish and his gaze drops to her lips. He moves his lips close to her ear, whispering in a husky voice, "Well? Care to enlighten me, Ally?"

Her eyes open wide and she stutters a bit. She swallows nervously and ignores the pounding in her chest. "Well, uh... um..."

Austin looks incredibly pleased at her reaction to him and repositions his hand so his entire forearm is against the wall, bringing him closer to Ally's small form. He places the other hand on her hip, causing her to jump in surprise at the contact, eyes darting to his hand in alarm. He starts to lean in closer when he suddenly feels two small hands pressing against his chest.

"Whoa, there, cowboy!" Ally yelps desperately, turning her head to the side, eyes screwed shut.

He stands there, stunned, unable to remember the last time a girl turned down his advances. Oh, that's right, he can't remember because _it's never happened._ He gapes for half a minute, before uttering a wholly shocked sounding, "_What_?"

At his dumbfounded expression, Ally squares her shoulders and regains her sass. "You wanna know what you're known for?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. "You're known for being a notorious flirt. You're known for hooking up with random girls at random parties and never calling them the next day, or _ever_. You're known for _only_ dating cheerleaders despite your tendency to hook up with any sort of girl at said parties." She jabs at his chest with a finger. "_That _is what you're known for." Her eyes narrow as she stares him down.

She decides to leave out the bits about his ridiculously good looks and easy charm. She figures it would go straight to his ego and take away from the point she was trying to make.

The expression of shock drops and then he ducks his head, chuckling a little. When he lifts his head back up, his eyes are bright with amusement. "You forgot my ridiculously good looks and easy charm."

She crosses her arms. "No, I purposefully left those out because your ego is already alarmingly huge." And then she smirks at him.

"So you think I have ridiculously good looks and an easy charm?"

She shrugs innocently. "Maybe," she says with a quirk of her lips and laughing eyes. "Or maybe that's what everyone else keeps telling me."

He laughs out loud and shakes his head. "You're something else, Ally..." and then he trails off, silently asking for a last name.

Ally rolls her eyes in exasperation. "Oh my god, you are embarrassingly hopeless. My last name was written on my notebook, too."

He pouts at her and he looks so much like a puppy, she actually has to resist the urge to scratch at his belly.

She takes an exaggeratedly deep breath, as if his entire existence was inconveniencing her. "Dawson. Ally Dawson."

Austin brightens and smiles. "You're something else, Ally Dawson." And then he taps a finger on the very tip of her nose.

Her brown eyes widen for a fraction of a second before quickly turning into flat stare. "You have _no_ concept of personal space or boundaries, do you?" She tilts her head and arches a perfect eyebrow.

"And what makes you think that?"

"Well, for starters, your hand is still on my hip," she says pointedly as she looks him straight in the eye.

His thumb stops its lazy circling and it's his turn to arch an eyebrow. "You know..." he starts lowly, "you could have totally moved my hand a long time ago," he points out, eyebrow arching even higher.

Really, seriously, this was his grade A material and in all of her seventeen years, nothing's prepared her for this caliber of flirting. Mostly, because, you know, the idea of the school's most popular boy flirting with her was hilariously and disturbingly absurd.

And yet, it was still happening.

Her cheeks are flushing madly and she finds that she has no witty retort. She opens her mouth and snaps it shut with an audible click from her teeth. It isn't until his thumb continues their ministrations that she huffs and finally pushes his hand away from her hip.

Austin grins, opens mouth his like he's about to say something when Ally notices Trish out of the corner of her eye.

"Uh-oh," she interrupts softly, eyebrows furrowed. "I think Trish just reached her limit."

The blond frowns in confusion. "Who?"

"Um, uh, my friend, Trish," Ally explains distractedly, trying to get a better look at her. She stands on her tip toes and tries to look over Austin's shoulder.

Austin turns around a little, looking out at the dance floor. "Which one is she?"

"Do you hear any Spanish?" she asks worriedly, ignoring the question and straining her ears.

"What? Spanish?"

And then Austin hears it: a loud, drunken, angry screaming, but all in a high pitched language he doesn't understand, but recognizes as Spanish.

"Oh no," Ally mumbles, eyes going wide, "I have to go." And then she ducks under his arm and runs out to the dance floor.

"Whoa, hey!" Austin calls after her. She either doesn't hear or chooses to ignore him so he watches her go.

Ally stops when she reaches a short, Latina girl with wild hair. Trish's face lights up and she sloppily kisses the taller brunette on the cheek. "Ay, chica!"

"Hi to you, too, Trish," Ally says dryly, starting to lead her to the front door. "C'mon, let's go home."

Trish says something in Spanish and Ally's picked up enough throughout the years to understand bits of it.

"Um, my night?" she asks hesitantly. Her eyes flick over to meet brown ones from across the room. Austin catches her gaze and salutes with a small, knowing smirk. Ally rolls her eyes before going back to focus on an easy path to the door. "You wouldn't believe me even if you were sober," she says decidedly.

Trish stumbles and starts shouting obscenities in Spanish.

Ally sighs heavily. "C'mon, mamacita, let's get you home."

She purposefully ignores Austin's eyes boring into her as she leaves the party.

* * *

A/N: I know there's a metric-fuck-ton of Austin and Ally high school fics, but it's one of my favorite cliches and I really wanted to give it a shot. Honestly, this probably won't have much of an actual plot, outside of character development, relationship building, and day-to-day shenanigans. So if any of that bores you, turn away now.

This was partly inspired by bookworm3's Insane, which is probably my favorite high school AU fic on the site. There really aren't that many similarities, other than Player!Austin and Sassy!Ally and their first real encounter is at a high school party.

Also, thanks to Elizabeth for reading this and basically telling me that this did not suck and assuring me that I was not putting out crap. You, dear, make me confident in my writing abilities.


	2. Eventful First Day

A/N: Well, uh, wow. I was not expecting such a massive response. Your reviews make me feel loved and important in a way my parents were never able to do.

Holy heart failure, Batman, this chapter is long. And boring. And uneventful.

Great intro to a chapter, AMIRITE?

Yep, I really know how to sell my work.

Go read Paper Towns by John Green. It is a book that holds a large amount of pure awesome.

* * *

Ally walks through the halls of Miami High Monday morning, class schedule in one hand, a brand new notebook in the other.

She can't help the feeling of excitement that rushes through her when she realizes her first class is Calculus. She spent _all summer_ preparing for this class—along with the others, of course—and knows she'll be able to easily breeze through all of the problems.

And maybe if she's lucky, her teacher will even let her move ahead in class!

She stops by her newly assigned locker and starts to turn the dial when she hears the sound of obnoxious laughter and the squeaking of new sneakers across the tile floor. She frowns and twists around to see a group of her attractive male peers heading down the hall, toward her general direction, the obvious cause of the disruption.

Austin Moon, of course, is at the center of it all.

"Ah," she murmurs to herself, not surprised to find that they're behind all the noise.

Ally remembers the entirety of their conversation from the other night in vivid detail, and while it had been—well, she supposes she'll settle on _interesting—_she doesn't think there will be a repeat. She's not sure what to expect from the popular boy, but it isn't much. If she were to be completely honest, she hopes it isn't much more than the occasional wave here and there. And that's if he chooses to acknowledge her at all.

She turns back to her locker, hand still on the dial, intent on ignoring the bunch of rowdy boys when suddenly, she feels a sharp tug on a lock of her brown hair. She gasps in surprise and whirls around furiously, ready to say a thing or two to the culprit.

The words die in her throat as she catches the backs of Austin and his crew as they stride past her, retelling stories of epic adventures during their respective summers. Realizing that it was just him, she rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

Austin glances over his shoulder and sends her a quick wink before turning his attention back to his friends, laughing at one of their punchlines.

Ally tries, she really does, but she can't stop the fond smile that somehow manages to work its way across her lips as she watches them round the corner.

"Whoa—oh, _what_ was _that_?" a loud voice demands from behind her.

"Wah!" The voice causes her to drop her things in shock. "Oh my god!" Ally gasps, half-whirling around, half-falling against the lockers with a body slam. She manages to adjust her breathing properly when she realizes who it is. Righting herself, she meets the annoyed, flat stare of her best friend.

Jeez, what _is_ it with people and _scaring_ the ever loving crap out of her today?

"Well?" Trish asks, eyebrow beginning to arch.

"Hold on," Ally breathes, clapping a hand to her chest. "Let me just make sure that I'm not about to have a heart attack over here." And then she glares at the shorter girl before bending down to pick up her things.

Trish rolls her eyes. "As if! You're too young and spry for a heart attack!" she scoffs. And then she slaps at Ally's arm for a bit, absolutely gleeful. "Was that Austin Moon? _Playing with your hair?!_" her voice is uncomfortably close to shrill, in Ally's opinion.

The taller brunette winces, but it's more from the comment than the playful slapping. "Uh..." she trails off, eyes darting around uncertainly.

Trish's jaw drops and she adopts a scandalized look. "Oh my god. Did you guys hook up at Jenny's party or something?! _Oh my god_. Was it when I was drunk?! _OH MY GOD_. How drunk was I?!"

Ally chooses to gracefully ignore the first half of Trish's outburst. She holds up a hand to calm her friend. "Don't worry," she starts in a soothing voice, "I pulled you out before you started singing Spanish ballads. But you sounded lovely on the car ride home; not nearly as pitchy during your seventeenth birthday party."

A look of nostalgia washes over Trish's features. "Man, that was an _awesome_ party," she sighs contently with a soft smirk.

"Yes, it's hard to forget the night where you made Tequila your bitch," Ally deadpans.

"Damn right, I did." But then she goes back to focus on the matter at hand, eyes snapping up to meet Ally's. "So?" she demands hotly, "What was all that pre-school hair tugging about?"

Ally sighs and shrugs. "I don't know," she says honestly. "Austin and I ran into each other at Jenny's party and we talked for ten, maybe fifteen minutes before I took you home." She looks at Trish sharply, "Keyword here being '_talked_'." She raises an eyebrow pointedly.

Trish deflates faster than a popped balloon. "Talked? That's it?" she asks, one part incredulous, one part suspicious.

Ally nods, starting over on her locker combination. "Believe it or not, that's all we did."

"Hm," Trish murmurs, appearing thoughtful. "See, since it's _you_, I believe the 'talking' thing, but since it's also _Austin Moon_, I'm a little skeptical about the 'talking' thing." And then she holds up her hands, miming like she's weighing something in either palm and raises an eyebrow. "You know what I'm saying?" she asks with a wrinkle of her nose.

At this point, Ally had finally managed to open her locker. After a moment's hesitation, she looks at Trish from around her locker door. "Well, I think he kind of tried to kiss me at some poi—"

"Oh my god! Shut up!" Trish squeals with delight, slamming Ally's locker door shut in excitement.

Ally closes her eyes and takes a deep, calming breath, gathering every once of patience she has left. "You know what?" she mutters to herself, glaring at the blasted thing, "I don't even need to use my locker today."

"Wait," the Latina says, halting in her excitement. "What do you mean '_kinda tried_'?" she asks curiously, complete with finger quotes. Her eyebrows are furrowed in mild confusion as she blinks up at her friend.

"I stopped him," Ally explains simply with a tiny shrug of her slim shoulders.

Trish's eyebrows shoot up. "No way," she breathes, a slow smirk starting to form, "You turned down a kiss from _Austin Moon?_"

Ally inhales and exhales deeply. "Yes, I did. I don't wanna talk about it," she mumbles, rubbing her temples. "It was just... it was a really, _really_ weird moment in my life," she moans with a shake of her head.

The slap-happy Latina slaps her friend again. "Dude, you turned the down the advances of the hottest guy in school?!" she asks, whooping with mad laughter.

"Trish!" Ally hisses under her breath, eyes darting around to make sure they're not catching the attention of others. "Keep your voice down!" And then she looks at her, deadly serious. "Promise me you won't go around saying anything, okay? I think I was lucky enough that nobody really noticed us at Jenny's party."

Finally getting a hold of her laughter, Trish nods. "Okay, okay. I do owe you a solid for being my designated driver at the last minute," she pauses to roll her eyes, "I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks, Trish," she says sincerely, shoulders sagging with relief.

"Just be glad that I finally learned how to keep my mouth shut over the years," the Latina snickers.

The taller girl eyes her friend wearily and slinks away, mumbling a wry, "I'm going to class."

"I'm grilling you about this after school!" Trish calls after her, laughter still bubbling in her voice.

* * *

Ally's first two classes fly by without much happening and for that, she's grateful. It's her last year and she plans on it passing by quickly and quietly, so she will be able move on to bigger and better things.

Fortunately, she hasn't run into Austin since the hair tugging earlier that morning and she doesn't plan on actively seeking him out anytime soon. She hopes he feels the same.

It's not that she _doesn't_ want to be friends, it's just... well, Austin has this uncanny ability to attract attention and chaos, and Ally simply isn't interested in getting caught up in his shenanigans. She's pretty sure she couldn't keep up with him on a daily basis if the two ever were able to strike up a proper, genuine friendship.

Keeping an on Trish takes up enough of her time and effort, thank you muchly.

So she concludes that between Trish, school, work, and college applications, she just doesn't have time to entertain the blond menace.

Not to mention his lack of personal space and his tendency to flirt makes it impossible for her to lower her guard enough to even _trust_ him, let alone befriend him.

She shakes her head, trying to clear her thoughts of Austin as she makes her way to the cafeteria for lunch. Trish texted her earlier with her lunch schedule and sadly, Ally will be eating on her own today. She doesn't mind really, eating by herself, and she perks up at the thought of having a nice, quiet lunch to read her current book.

She makes her way through the lunch line, picking up a tray of decidedly innocent looking chicken strips. To her mild disappointment, there are no pickles out, but she spoons a mound of corn unto her tray and pumps some ketchup next to her chicken strips.

Ally looks around the mostly full cafeteria and sighs in relief when she manages to find one small, empty table toward the back. She takes her seat and pulls out Paper Towns by John Green out of her bag, flipping to the page where she left off. She's about half a paragraph in when she hears a dull thud land in the seat across from her. She freezes and slowly lifts her head to find herself staring into Austin Moon's mischievous brown eyes.

Her jaw drops and she gapes for a second. "Wha—?!"

He grins at her and bites into an apple. "Sup?" he greets cheerfully, as if eating with her was a regular, everyday occurrence instead of the seriously bizarro event that it really is.

"What are you doing here?" she asks, brows furrowed in confusion, bookmarking her page and closing her book.

His eyebrows arch in bewilderment and he swallows his bite of apple bits. "Eating lunch with you," he states slowly in a _duh_ tone of voice.

Ally snaps her head up to look at the area where the popular kids usually sat. Flapping a hand in that general vicinity, she asks, somewhat strained, "Shouldn't you be over there? With... the cheerleaders or something?"

He wrinkles his nose. "They're so boring. And they're always talking about sports," he replies with a roll of his eyes. "You're much more fun to talk to!" he smiles brightly.

Ally feels her cheeks flush and really, she's going to have to build up an immunity to his ridiculous charm. She shakes her head and scoffs skeptically. "Look, Austin, I think it would be best if you left me alone and ate with them."

Austin pauses from taking another bite of his apple. "Why?" his voice sounds like it's close to whining and Ally hesitates.

She rubs her temples for a moment and Austin takes another bite while he waits for her to collect her thoughts. "I don't really want to eat lunch with _The Most Popular Boy in School_," she finally says, an eyebrow arched to complete her look of mild annoyance. "I just wanna read my book, eat my lunch, and be left alone."

And whoa, Austin _totally_ hears the capitalization in her tone of voice which is equal parts weird and impressive. He looks at her bemusedly. "I'm not_ that _popular. And I think you're being kinda ridiculous," he processes the last part of what she said with a wrinkle of his nose, "Also boring. Lunch is for socializing! Read that book later!"

"Maybe," she says with a shrug, "But it's getting interesting and I would like to finish it before my English class assigns me some reading." Ally opens up her book and points out, "If you're bored, you could just leave and talk to some normal human beings or socially savvy people." And then she drops her head to focus on the pages in an attempt to end the conversation.

Austin watches her read in stunned silence. "You're really not going to talk to me for the rest of lunch," he scoffs, a bit incredulous.

"This is a _really_ good book."

"There's still fifteen minutes left!" he whines.

She looks up to shoot him a cheeky grin. "Oh good! Just enough time to finish this chapter!" Her eyes dart back down to her book but she suddenly finds herself staring blankly at her empty hands. "Hey!" she exclaims, glaring at Austin, who is clutching her book to his chest like a teddy bear.

"I just wanna talk to you," he pouts. When she rolls her eyes, he sighs resignedly. "Okay, I guess if you really don't want my company, just say so."

She stares at him flatly, saying in a loud, clear voice, "I really, _truly_, do not want your—"

Austin drops her book into his lap and covers his ears. "IF I DON'T HEAR IT, IT'S NOT TRUE. IF I DON'T HEAR IT, IT'S NOT TRUE."

Ally's jaw drops and she sputters in disbelief. Finally, she huffs and leans over, her fingers catching his wrist to pull his hand away from his ear. "Has anyone ever told you that you have the mental capacity of a small child?" she snaps hotly.

Austin settles his arms on the table and decides not to mention to her that her hand is still holding onto his wrist. He's about to defend himself when they both feel a presence looming near. "Uh..." he starts hesitantly.

"Austin?"

They both slowly turn their heads toward the source currently emitting intense waves of hostility at Ally: a livid, but well-dressed, blonde girl with a serious case of _Crazy Eyes_.

Ally sighs deeply, trying to be patient. "Hey, Tilly," she greets in a tired manner.

She turns back to her lunch absent-mindedly and freezes when she sees her fingers still wrapped gently around Austin's wrist. She quickly snatches her hand back and suddenly forgets what a normal person would realistically do with that particular appendage. She can't decide whether to play with her hair or scratch the back of her neck, so she ends up doing some strange mix of the two before finally dropping her hand back on the table, taking a small spoonful of the corn on her lunch tray because hey! Eating lunch _during lunch_ was a totally normal thing to do and _thank god_ she thought of it eventually. But because she's _Ally_, the whole thing comes off as fantastically and hilariously awkward instead of the smoothly subtle she's hoping for.

Austin can't help the fondness he feels as he watches her little display of awkwardness. When she sees this, he grins wider as she turns pink and focuses even harder on her mound of corn. "Good?" he asks with a teasing grin.

"Absolutely delicious," she deadpans, placing another spoonful into her mouth to emphasize her point. She does it without looking at him and somehow, this makes it all the more amusing.

Tilly watches the entire exchange with a look of true offense and horror. She regains the ability to speak and practically screeches, "Oh my god, Austin, _ew._ Why are you sitting here?"

Austin furrows his brows at her look of disgust. "I was—"

"Asking me to move because he wanted this table, "Ally cuts in abruptly, standing up.

His hand snakes out and latches onto her wrist. "Whoa, where do you think you're going? I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted to eat lunch with you."

Ally's eyes widen and she looks at Tilly, her expression eloquently saying _OH CRAP_, as Tilly's jaw drops and she stutters incoherently. Ally winces and her _OH CRAP_ face switches to _OH SHIT_ and huh, Austin isn't even aware there was a _difference_ until now.

He suspects it has something to do with the artful way she widened her eyes.

"WHAT?!" Tilly snaps tightly, rounding on Ally. Her eyes are suddenly crazier and Austin briefly imagines them spinning viciously until they just fall out of their sockets.

Which would be awesome. Terrifying, but awesome.

Tilly starts to laugh, a bitter and harsh one that causes Ally to flinch and Austin to frown. "Austin, you're still pretty new, but trust me when I say this: Ally's _nothing_ special. She's a quiet freak who, like, doesn't even have any friends! Like, how sad is that, right?! And look, it's totally nice of you to see her as a charity case but seriously, she's _so_ not worth your time." She finishes up her rant with a sad smile and slow shake of her head.

Tilly has said worse things to her in the past, so Ally just musters up a half-hearted eye roll and sighs, taking another bite of her corn. "I prefer _nerd_ for the record, thank you," she deadpans. Austin looks at Ally with wide eyes of surprise, and maybe just a bit of anger. She catches his look and shrugs to show that she's okay.

"Look, Austin, you really don't want to waste your time with this total loser," Tilly scoffs with a roll of her eyes.

Ally arches an eyebrow and makes a grab for her lunch tray, quickly losing patience with the two of them. "Here, _I'll_ just leave and you can sit with him."

"Ally, _sit down_," Austin demands calmly and she freezes before slowly moving to sit down. He turns to Tilly, flashes her his winning smile and Ally _swears_ she sees the other girl swoon. "Hey, Tilly, thank you for the offer, but I think I'm gonna stay right here. Is that okay? How about I join you some other time for lunch, huh?" He brightens his smile and throws in a charming wink and it works.

After a moment of hesitating, Tilly relents. "Okay," she sighs with a bit of a pout, her shoulders sagging in disappointing. "Next time it is!" And with that said and done, she flounces off to sit with the rest of her popular peers.

Austin watches her go with a frown. When she's finally out of earshot, he turns to Ally."You always let her talk to you like that?" he grits out, angrily biting into his apple that was slowly starting to turn brown.

Ally rolls her eyes. "It's nothing," she starts, "She's always been rude to me but she actually started to leave me alone last year."

Okay, so _rude_ may have been the understatement of the year seeing as how Tilly made it her life's mission to ruin everything Ally had going for her. But the last part _had_ been true; ever since Austin transferred, Tilly suddenly spent every moment desperately vying for his attention and leaving Ally alone in the process. And yes, that included trying out for the cheer leading squad.

Unfortunately for Tilly, she had neither the athletic prowess nor the _sane_ amount of pep, so she was refused a spot on the squad. Multiple times.

Ally had been hoping that her focused pursuit of Austin would continue and thus, senior year would be Tilly-free, well, for the most part, anyway.

To some extent, she can understand why seeing the object of her affection sitting with her most hated person would drive Tilly to lash out like she had.

_Doesn't mean the bitch isn't cray-cray though_, Ally thinks. She pauses in her thoughts, and her next one is, _I have _got_ to stop picking up Trish's lingo._

But hey, if the cray-cray fits.

Austin tilts his head at her. "So why did she start leaving you alone last year?"

Ally snorts. "Apparently, she can't torment me and flirt with you at the same time." His eyes go wide and he sputters in shock. Ally gives him an amused look; this is the first time Austin Moon's lost his cool in front of her. "Oh please, like you hadn't noticed."

He groans and closes his eyes. "I was seriously hoping she was always that crazy." He winces and rubs his neck, "I mean, it totally makes sense..."

At this, Ally raises an eyebrow. "It does?"

He nods and sighs like he's been burdened with a curse. "You know, because I'm so hot and all, but—"

"Oh god," Ally cuts in under her breath with a dramatic eye roll.

"—I am so _not _interested." He wrinkles his nose in horror. "I mean, I only date cheerleaders!" And then he holds out his arms like _What can you do?_ as he looks at her pointedly.

Ally shakes her head and rolls her eyes again, finds that she does this more often than not when Austin is near, and says, "I know. Everybody's heard of your ridiculous _Cheerleaders Only _rule and that's probably another reason why Tilly was so crazy when she saw us talking. I'm in no way, shape, or form a cheerleader but for whatever stupid reason, you _still_ wanted to eat lunch with me."

Austin smirks at that. "Oh, I don't know about that," he says as he eyes her body salaciously, "I'm pretty sure you've got the shape and form of a cheerleader..." And then he winks at her in a positively dirty manner.

She chooses to keep her mouth shut, because really, if she opened it, the only thing that would come out would be pained or strangled noises of incoherence. She also chooses to ignore the way his smirk widens considerably at her pink cheeks.

She does, however, choose to catapult a spoonful of corn into his face. There's a resounding _splat!_ as she gets up to leave.

She also manages to mumble a half-hearted _jackass_ under her breath.


	3. It's a Contractual Thing

A/N: Thanks for the awesome feedback, guys! And you can thank the always immaculate Miss-Rainy-Skies for prep-talking me into finishing this tonight. She helped me bury a minor plot hole I accidentally glossed over and took the time to read this to make sure it was passable.

* * *

It isn't until she gets to her next class that she realizes with a jolt of disappointment and frustration that a certain blond still has her book.

She frowns as she tries to focus on her teacher's lecture but all she can think about is Austin Moon and how he has Paper Towns and suddenly, she's overcome with the fear that she's never going to know what will happen next.

Will Q ever find Margo? Will Lacey and Margo rekindle their friendship? _Will Ben ever let go of his beer sword?!_

Since the sword had been glued to his hand, that last one seemed unlikely.

"—son? Miss Dawson? Are you paying attention?"

The sound of her teacher's sharp voice cuts through her thoughts and she jumps in her seat. Her eyes widen and, out of pure alarm, she blurts out the first thing that comes to her mind.

Unfortunately, this happens to be—

"_Beer swords!_"

Her teacher, a stout and graying woman named Mrs. Hoff, stands there in stunned silence as the bizarre term tumbles out the mouth of one of her best students. The look of annoyance melts into one of concern. "Miss Dawson? Are you feeling all right?" she asks, suddenly worried.

Ally slumps in her seat as she realizes that she currently has the entire class' attention. Half of them stare at her in confusion, the other half laugh silently. Mrs. Hoff is also staring at her, clearly ready to send her to the emergency room to have her brain checked.

With a groan, Ally nods uncomfortably. "I'm great," she says with a nervous laugh, "Greaty-great-great." And then she slumps even further in her seat, vaguely wishing that the ground below her will open up and swallow her whole.

As her teacher starts the lecture back up, Ally decides to just forget about the book. Besides, knowing her luck, Austin probably left it in the cafeteria anyway. She can always get another copy from a different library.

* * *

The bell rings, signaling the end of school and Ally shoots up like a rocket, the first person to the door. Once she gets lost in the crowd of bustling high school students, she puts her small stature and pointy elbows to work as she makes her way through the mass of people, keeping a keen out for memorable, dark curls.

"Hey! Hey, Trish!" Ally calls loudly, hurrying to her friend down the hall. "Trish!"

Trish turns around and gives her a look of confusion. "Uh, hi, Ally. What's up?"

Ally gives her an apologetic look as she tries to suck in some air. "Would you mind giving me a ride to Sonic Boom?"

"Oh, sure," she agrees with a casual shrug. And then she snaps her fingers and lights up as a memory hits her. "Hey, dropping you off at the mall might actually make me be on time for my new job!" she says excitedly.

The taller girl laughs. "What's your new job today?" she asks as they start down the hallway, toward the school doors.

Trish's features scrunch up in thought, which causes Ally to giggle, and then she finally waves a hand dismissively. "Eh, I'll just hang out at the food court until they call me because I can't remember where I'm at today."

"Oh, Trish," Ally says exasperatedly, but there's a soft fondness at the edge of her voice.

Trish shoots her a saucy grin and they start on their way.

* * *

Ally and Trish part ways at the food court and when she finally makes it into Sonic Boom, her dad breathes a huge sigh of relief.

"Hey, dad. Sorry I'm a bit—"

"Thank god you're here," he cuts in hurriedly. "Remember that conference about didgeridoos? It's in half an hour."

Ally blinks owlishly at him. "You're going to that?" she asks tonelessly.

Lester gives a short nod. "Yeah."

Her eyebrow raises skeptically and she squints at him. "And you think those will... sell?"

He snorts and rolls his eyes. "Of course not, honey!" He walks by her and gives her a kiss on the forehead. "I just love 'em!" And then he exits through the door.

She can't help but shake her head as she laughs at her father's antics.

* * *

Ally spends the rest of her shift entertaining Trish on her break, which lasted a few hours and resulted in her just heading straight home instead of going back to work, tending to customers, and working diligently on homework during the store's slower moments.

A while before Sonic Boom is about to close, Ally decides to rearrange the mess from underneath the counter. Unfortunately, this makes it hard to keep an eye on the door, but she never has time during the day due to the customers filtering in and out. But it's always a rarity when a customer stops by the store this late at night, anyway, so she just takes the risk, sits down on the floor and starts organizing the mess.

Ten minutes in, a hand taps the counter loudly and a voice calls out, "Hello?"

A gasp of shock escapes her lips and then there's a deafening _thwack!_ of her skull hitting something solid. Namely, the top of the counter.

"GAH!"

Ally can hear somebody wince loudly, and then exclaim, "Oh, man! Sorry, dude. That totally must have hurt!"

She clutches her head and hisses sharply through her teeth. "Owww..." her voice comes out as a soft whine.

The heap on the floor slowly stands up, rubbing the top of her mussed up head. Ally's eyes are shut tightly due to the blinding pain and she manages a weak, "Hi, welcome to... _ow_... Sonic Boom... how may I help you?"

"_Ally?_" a familiar voice blurts, sounding shocked.

Ally's eyes pop open to meet a pair of brown ones that she's becoming increasingly accustomed to, much to her displeasure. Her jaw drops open and her features take on a look of complete disbelief. "Austin?!"

And yep, the pounding in her head has doubled, ladies and gentlemen.

He frowns at her in confusion. "What are you doing behind the counter?" he questions suspiciously.

"I work here," she deadpans, rolling her eyes. "What are _you_ doing here?" she shoots back wearily, furrowing her brows.

"Oh," he relaxes. "I was, uh, just gonna get some new guitar strings, you know... for my guitar," he states awkwardly.

"Guitar strings for your guitar?" she repeats bemusedly, eyebrows shooting up. "That would make sense," she says slowly, making him feel like a child.

He looks sheepish. "Right. Yeah." Austin suddenly sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "Um, hey..." he trails off hesitantly. At her mildly annoyed look of '_Go on_', he winces and sighs again. "Look, Ally, I just... I wanted to say I'm sorry," he apologizes, sounding quite sincere.

"For what?" she asks and tilts her head to the side. And then she realizes that he must have been referring to their impromptu lunch date.

Not that it was a date, but you know.

He fidgets nervously, shifting his weight from one foot to another. "For my crude comment about you. You know, when we were eating lunch together," he answers. "It was just a joke! But it obviously made you uncomfortable, so I'm sorry," he finishes sincerely.

And then he just _looks_ at her with, like, the saddest eyes ever and she finds herself deflating within seconds.

_Damn those puppy eyes of his_.

Seriously. How is she supposed to stay mad at that?

She finally sighs and rubs her temples. "Look, forget it. It's not a big deal, okay? Let's just forget it ever happened. And maybe... I shouldn't have flung that corn into your face." She takes a deep breath and looks him in the eye. "Call it even?" she asks hopefully.

He chuckles in relief. "Sounds good to me."

And she gives him a comforting smile in return. "Great."

Austin then takes a look around the store, seemingly in awe, as he whispers, "Dude. It is _so_ cool that you work in a music store!" He whirls back around to her. "Why didn't you tell me you worked here?" he asks in an almost accusatory tone.

She blinks at him in bafflement. "It... never came up?" she answers and her eyebrows scrunch up uncertainly.

He grins at her. "I bet it's a ton of fun, huh?"

"Work is work, it shouldn't be fun," she says sternly and then winces at herself. Jeez, Trish was right; she needed to loosen up.

Austin looks at her, absolutely incredulous. "C'mon," he says with a shake of his head, "working here has _got_ to be fun. You're surrounded by awesome instruments, like, _all the time!_"

Ally looks at him, amused. "Well, yes, Austin, I _am_ surrounded by instruments because, you know, I work in a _music store_."

He rolls his eyes at her sarcasm and fixes an even stare at her. "Very funny. But seriously, I wouldn't be able to stop playing all the instruments."

She smiles softly at that. "Well, it is pretty cool to play some of them whenever the store's slow," she admits with a small chuckle.

Austin smirks and looks at her with an obvious expression of _Ha! Knew it!_ "So you play some instruments! Which ones?" he asks excitedly.

"Just a few," she says nonchalantly.

He looks at her thoughtfully and then points a finger at the baby grand. "I bet you're really good at the piano."

Ally snorts. "That's an easy guess," she says in a bored tone. "Tons of kids start with the piano."

Austin rolls his eyes with a playful smile. "Okay, okay! You've got a point." He looks thoughtful once more. "So you're probably good with guitar, right?"

She scoffs at him, offended that he even has to ask.

The blond laughs at the look she shoots him and asks, "So what's your preference?"

She bites back a grin. "Acoustic, hands down."

Austin smirks at her. "Good answer," he agrees with a nod. "What else do you play?" he asks as he looks at her curiously.

Ally wrinkles her nose. "Oh, just a lot of classical instruments. Probably nothing that will catch your interest."

He shakes his head. "I love _all_ instruments. I mean, I have my favorites, but they're all cool. Playing music is probably the most amazing thing to me, and that's why I love picking up an instrument and just messing around," he says and there's a sense of sincerity and passion in his little speech that really speaks to Ally, impresses her even.

She raises an eyebrow, trying to appear unimpressed. "So how many different instruments do you play?"

His eyes light up at the prospect of talking about music. "Well, piano—yeah, okay, don't look at me like that. You're right, a lot of people play it—drums, guitar, harp, a trumpet through another trumpet—what?! I _can—_bass, the banjo, keyboard, and, like, a ton more that I don't technically play, but I've picked up a few times."

"Wow," she breathes, blinking in awe. "That's pretty... awesome."

And then he looks at her, smiling like an excited child wanting to share. "What about you? Which ones do you play? C'mon, just tell me, I'm sure they're all really cool."

Ally gives a little laugh. "Okay, okay," she relents with a soft smile. "Let's see... I can also play the harp, and I've never really been good at the drums so that's a no. And while I can't play a trumpet through another trumpet, I'm pretty decent with the flute, violin, viola, clarinet, and... I love the harmonica," she finishes ticking off some of her favorite instruments with a wide smile.

He looks at her skeptically. "The harmonica?"

"My dad's really good at it. He taught me when I was younger," she explains with a shrug.

"Your dad taught you?"

"Yeah. He pretty much taught me how to play all of those instruments. This is our store," she says casually.

Austin's brown eyes widen. "Wait! This is _your_ store? You _own_ this store?!" he blurts out, gesturing toward her and then toward the vast space in the empty store. His jaw drops in shock.

She blinks at him, suddenly alarmed at the volume of his voice. "Um, I mean, technically it's my dad's store... but I'm the only other employee and I know how to do everything he does when it comes to running the store."

"Wow," he mutters as he looks at her in wonder. "Man, that is _so _awesome!"

She can't help the little scoff of laughter that escapes her as she shakes here head. "I guess," she says modestly with a lift of her slim shoulders.

A beat passes.

Ally raises an eyebrow at him. "So...?"

The look of wonder subsides a little and he looks at her with knitted brows. "What?" he asks, clearly confused.

Her eyebrow arches higher. "Your guitar strings?" she asks pointedly as she bites back a huge grin at his forgetfulness. "They're over there, by the guitar display," she says, pointing in their general direction.

Austin's eyes widen as he finally remembers his original reason for trekking to the store. "Oh, right!" he exclaims and starts off in his new hunt for guitar strings.

She can't help but laugh at how scatter-brained the blond can be.

He makes it back in record time and Ally rings him out. He pays for them and refuses her offer of a bag, and stuffs the little box into his pants pockets.

She secretly marvels at how boys are able to do that before she shakes her head and gives him one final smile.

He looks up at her and smiles back in a boyish manner.

Ally's smile falters, seeing as how she was expecting him to depart after his purchase. He continues to stand there, smiling at her casually, for another moment or so before she gives him a strange look.

"Austin?"

"Yeah?"

"... Did you... need anything else?" she asks in tones of confusion and curiosity.

He blinks at her. "No. Why?" he asks innocently.

She purses her lips thoughtfully. "Okay, then. So why, exactly, are you still standing in my store?" she asks, gesturing to him and then the store.

"I was waiting for you," he says simply, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. He's struck with a sudden idea. "Hey! What are you doing after you get off work?"

She narrows her eyes in suspicion at him. "Nothing, why?" she asks slowly, dragging out her words carefully.

"We should hang out," he suggests and he grins at her hopefully. "Late dinner or something?"

She blinks at him, dumbfounded. "I don't know about that," she says uncertainly.

He holds up his hands in surrender. "I'll be on my best behavior! No crude remarks! Promise," he says, his tone is light and playful, but his brown eyes are sincere and hopeful.

Ally hesitates, worrying her bottom lip. "I don't think you want to wait for half an hour..."

Austin shrugs. "We can meet up somewhere after you close up."

She shakes her head. "I don't have a car because my dad has it, and he's gone for the weekend. I usually walk or bike home anyway, because it's not too far."

"Then I'll just come back and pick you up," he says casually.

She furrows her brows. "And this is because... you want us to be friends? Or something?"

"And to make up for my rude comment about you at lunch," he says sincerely. He can tell that she's about to turn him down so he playfully punches her in the shoulder. "C'mon! It'll be fun, _pal_," he says, popping the 'p' on pal.

Ally looks at him with exhaustion, only ever so slightly amused by his ill attempt of camaraderie. "Okay, fine, _bud_," she agrees exasperatedly and gives a theatrical roll of her eyes for added measure. "I will see you at nine."

He grins and walks backward for a few paces, saying, "Sounds good, dude," before he turns around and exits the store.

* * *

Ally waits no longer than five minutes after she's closed the store before Austin pulls up to the curb in a black 1994 black LeBaron convertible. It's in perfect condition and she hates to admit it, but she's clearly impressed with how clean it is, on the inside and out.

As Austin unlocks the passenger door for her, he smirks with pride. "Nice, right?" He looks at the car fondly. "She's my pride and joy," his voice is practically a purr as he caresses the top of his dashboard lovingly.

She gives an unladylike snort and gets into the car. "Well, it's good to know that you're responsible enough to take care of _something_."

He laughs good-naturedly and turns to her with a secretive smirk. "I have something for you," he says mysteriously.

She pauses in buckling up. "What is it?" she asks wearily, trying to ignore how strange this whole thing is.

But hey, Trish was always pushing her to more things out of her comfort zone, right? Well, this was definitely way out there.

"I stopped by home and grabbed it for you." He starts to drive away from the curb and gestures over at her. "It's in the glove compartment."

Ally frowns and leans over to open it. When she sees the contents inside, she lights up with a smile. "My book!" she chirps happily.

He nods as he eyes her removing it from the compartment and gingerly shutting it closed. "Yeah, you kinda forgot it at lunch after... everything," he mumbles.

She places it in her purse and smiles at him. "Thank you so much! I almost forgot you had it. You keep... surprising me," she finishes.

He shoots her a quick glance, eyebrow quirking upward. "Really? And how is that?"

Ally rolls her eyes. "It's not like I was expecting to see you tonight at Sonic Boom. And now we're, what? Hanging out? Also bizarre."

"It's not that bizarre," he laughs.

"It kinda is," she mumbles.

Austin grins at her. "So what are you in the mood for?" he asks conversationally.

"I have no idea," she admits with a heavy sigh.

Austin throws a bemused look her way. "Really? No idea?"

She shrugs and turns to look at him. "You're the one who invited me to dinner. Where do you want to go?" she asks curiously.

He shrugs at her. "I can eat anything," he snickers. He appears thoughtful for a moment. "Here, what _don't _you like?"

Ally wrinkles her nose in thought and Austin grins upon seeing her do so. "Greasy foods. I mean, I enjoy the occasional burger, but I really don't like greasy places nor do I like fast food. I also don't like a lot of Mexican food, except for Trish's family's cooking. I don't like spicy food and most sea food... um..."

"Pizza?" Austin suggests as he grew weary with her growing list of disliked foods.

"Oh!" she exclaims brightly. "I love pizza!"

He laughs and shakes his head at her. "Pizza, it is," he murmurs in agreement and he switches lanes swiftly.

* * *

After they've been sat and the waiter walks away with their orders scribbled down and drinks on their table. A few minutes pass by and Austin can feel her eyes boring into him, so he slowly lifts his head to meet her gaze.

Ally challenges him with a hard look. "So."

He blinks at her innocently, unfazed. "So," he repeats.

"You really want _us_," she pauses, gesturing at the space between them, "to be friends?" And then she arches an inquisitive, and somewhat incredulous, brow.

His eyebrows knit together, not understanding why Ally seems unable to comprehend his simple wish. "Um, yes?" he says uncertainly. The arch in her eyebrow grows more severe and he quickly amends with a panicked, "I mean, yes! Yeah! I want us to be friends! Jeez!"

She purses her lips and stares him down for a moment. Just as Austin starts to grow uncomfortable under her intense gaze, Ally seems to relax. "Okay," she concedes slowly.

Austin's eyes brighten and he smiles like a kid on Christmas morning. "Really?!"

"Uh-huh," she murmurs absent-mindedly as she starts rummaging through her purse, "but I wrote up a Friendship Contract."

His child-like excitement diminishes and he stares at her, absolutely baffled. Surely, he _must_ have misheard her. "A _what_?"

She finally fishes out the contract and presents it in front of him with an elegant flourish. "A Friendship Contract," she repeats in a calm, matter-of-fact way.

Austin continues his stare, but then starts laughing. "Oh god, Ally, you're hilarious. This is a joke, right?" And then he laughs even harder, until he realizes that Ally is sitting there with her arms crossed and patiently waiting for him to settle down. "Oh my god," he breathes after a moment, "you're not kidding." His eyes widen and his jaw drops.

"I'm afraid I'm completely serious," she deadpans. "I'm going to need you to print your name here, initial here, here, and here. And then I'll need you to sign your name at the end right there," she continues, flipping through the contract and pointing at the designated places.

Austin works his jaw in silent horror, unable to respond.

"What?" Ally asks, as if people went around whipping out contracts on a regular basis.

He stares at her and gestures wildly, still trying to find the ability to form words. "I! But! _What_?! How even—? _Why?_ This—this is _ridiculous_, Ally!" he finally splutters. He flips through the pages. "When did you even have time to come up with this?"

"I wrote it up after you left the store," she replies. She sighs and points at the papers. "Here, do you want me to walk you through it?"

He shakes his head, still sputtering a bit. "Fine, I guess..." he relents, still confused.

Ally nods and holds up three fingers. "There are three conditions that are detailed in here. The first one addresses your complete lack of respecting personal space."

The blond frowns. "So?"

She rolls her eyes. "You're _too_ touchy feely and I happen to enjoy my personal space. For us to be friends, you need to _respect _my personal space." And then she regards him with a stern look. "That means no unnecessary touching."

He opens his mouth but she immediately cuts him off.

"And no hair tugging."

Austin pouts at this. "But it's so soft," he mumbles, reaching a hand out to touch some of her hair as he stares at it in wonder.

She bats his hand away impatiently. "Stop it," she demands, but is secretly pleased to know that the new expensive conditioner she invested in is paying off.

"Wait," Austin mutters, frowning in concentration as he processes everything. "What about hugs?"

Ally wrinkles her nose. "I guess those are okay. But not too many."

Austin gasps dramatically. "You're limiting _hugs_?! Were you, like, not loved properly as a child or something?!"

"Hey!" Ally protests, turning pink at his accusation. "I told you! I just... I like my personal space. And my best friend isn't exactly the most... _affectionate_ person either, so it works out, okay?"

"Ally," Austin starts, looking at her gravely, "Everybody likes hugs, okay?"

"I guess I'm just not a natural hugger, then," she concludes with a shrug.

Austin continues his look of horror for a minute before he finally rolls his eyes. "No touching, got it. Okay, what next?"

"Well, you already agreed to this earlier at Sonic Boom, but no more crude comments, okay? How are we supposed to be friends when you're making me uncomfortable?"

"Yeah, okay. Fair point," he admits. "But what if, like, you're looking really good one morning and I just—no? Okay, then," he quickly stops at her glare, scratching the back his neck nervously. He clears his throat a little. "So, uh, third condition?"

"And for the third one, we have to promise to be friends. _Just_ friends." She looks at him suspiciously and he frowns at her uncomfortably. "Rumor has it that Austin Moon doesn't know how to be 'just friends' with girls," she concludes softly. "I don't want you expecting anything more out of this and I want you to trust me enough that _I_ won't be expecting anything else either, okay?"

He looks at her mock-inquisitively, complete with furrowed brows and chin-stroking. "Are you saying that it'd be unwise for us to pursue a friends with benefits type of relationship?"

"Incredibly unwise, yes," she deadpans, clearly unamused by his question.

Austin laughs, sounding a little relieved. "Well, it's good to know that you're not in this because of my dashing good looks or a desperate need to get into my pants!" He says it so jovially that Ally is genuinely alarmed for a second.

"Um," she mumbles, heat rising in her cheeks, "I can, uh, assure you that... that's certainly not the case."

He blinks at her. "I don't know," he suddenly says, looking at her skeptically. "You weren't real convincing right there. Are you trying to trick me into lowering my guard around you with this whole contract thing so you can take advantage of me when I least expect it?"

Her eyes widen and she sputters at him incoherently.

At her quickly paling face, Austin starts laughing. "Oh man! You gotta relax, Ally, I'm just messin' with you." He rolls his eyes. "I know you're not really into anything like that. I got that much from Jenny's party the other day."

She glares at him, but feels her heart beat returning to normal. "So we're clear? You understand—"

Austin gives her a dismissive wave of his hand. "Yeah, yeah. I understand all your terms and conditions. Where's your pen?"

She hands it to him and he snorts or rolls his eyes every time he takes the pen to paper, but Ally ignores all of that and grins when he's finished and handing her the pen back.

"Do you do this for all of your friends?" he asks wearily, but he smirks a little to let her know he's mostly kidding.

Ally's grin falters at this. "Trish is my only friend," she admits quietly.

His eyebrows shoot up and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. "Oh, um, sorry."

"It's okay," Ally shrugs, not liking the look on his face. She quickly smiles at him, hoping to deter him from asking any questions. "Besides, I made a new friend tonight! Now I have _two!_" she says, and she sounds so genuinely happy at the prospect of having two friends, Austin can't help but grin at her. She holds out a hand for him to shake. "Friends, right?"

He shakes his head and reaches over to encase her tiny one in his larger hand. "Friends," he says decidedly with a firm nod and devilish smirk.


	4. Trust Issues

A/N: Okay, first off, what? I cannot believe I've reached a hundred reviews for three chapters. Thank you so, so much for all the reviews. You guys are amazing and thanks so much for all the support.

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my better half, Miss-Rainy-Skies. Go read Damage Control, it is a thing of beauty.

To those of you that thought Austin had ulterior motives, nope, sorry. He's just genuinely a nice guy.

This fic is mostly going to focus on Austin and Ally shenanigizing and if they happen to fall in love along the way, then cool.

* * *

During lunch the next day at school, Trish has set aside a table for Ally and herself. Trish picks at her macaroni and cheese and watches from her seat as Ally finally leaves the lunch line and is only now heading to the table.

"About time," Trish snorts impatiently as Ally slides into the seat across from hers.

"Sorry!" Ally apologizes sheepishly. "Um, I ended up running into someone on the way to lunch," she adds, stating her reason for being late.

Trish frowns and her eyebrows furrow curiously. "Who?"

And suddenly, Ally looks quite flustered and pink. "Well, uh, about that. Is it okay if—"

She's interrupted as a third lunch tray slams itself onto the table. "Sup, guys?" Austin greets casually as he takes a seat next to Ally.

Trish's jaw drops and the fork she's holding tumbles into her macaroni and cheese with a soft _plop!_ She watches as the blond gives her best friend a small smirk before picking up his cheeseburger. It's halfway to his mouth when she finally holds up a hand to cease the madness. "Whoa-oh! Hold up here!"

Ally blinks and looks up from her veggie wrap in mild confusion. Austin slowly lowers his cheeseburger back onto the plate. They share a look with each other before turning back to Trish.

"What?" the two simultaneously ask.

Well, this is entirely too freaky for Trish's liking. "Why is Blondie sitting here with us?" the Latina asks point-blank, not caring that she's referring to him like he isn't even sitting there.

He raises an eyebrow, but is smart enough to stay silent to let the girls hash it out. He watches them and takes a bite of his cheeseburger quietly.

Ally's eyebrows shoot up and she rolls her eyes. "It's not a big deal. Austin and I, we're, uh... we're friends now," she explains slowly, as if trying out the words for the first time. The odd look she gives at the end of the sentence does nothing to reassure Austin that she's got things handled.

He swallows his bite of food and gives Ally a look. "Wow. I can tell you really mean that," he says flatly.

The fair brunette inhales irritably and turns to him. "Well, how do you expect me to say it?" she snaps back.

He gives an overly exaggerated shrug. "I dunno. Maybe something like this?" And then he throws an arm around her slim shoulders and pins her petite frame to his side.

"Austin! Personal space!" she hisses.

He ignores this and plasters on a cheesy grin. "Hey! We're best friends now! Yay!" And then he releases her, dropping the entire facade. "You know? Something with feeling?"

Trish stares at him in absolute disgust. "What are you? A twelve year old girl? At a slumber party or something?"

Ally snickers to herself. "Yeah, I don't even think Trish and I were ever like that," she chimes in, biting back a grin.

Austin shakes his head in shame. "Well, without some sort of declaration like that, how am I supposed to know that our friendship is real?" he jokes. And then he hunches over the table to focus on Trish, looking at her very seriously. He holds a cupped hand to his mouth so Ally can't see his lips. "Did she make you sign a crazy contract, too?" he whispers conspiratorially.

"What?" the Latina asks sharply, wondering if she heard right.

"What are you saying?" Ally demands heatedly to Austin, sounding crazed with paranoia.

Austin drops his hand and sits straight up, wide-eyed. "Nothing!" he coughs under his breath.

Trish's eyebrows shoot up. She takes in the scene of Ally looking at him, annoyed and skeptical, while Austin takes a bite of his burger and grins at her with overly faked innocence, a small mound of food tucked away in his cheek like a baby chipmunk. "You two are idiots," she snorts, a smirk playing on her lips.

Austin turns to look at her mid-chew and his eyebrows shoot up comically. Ally just frowns at her friend.

"Why?" they chorus curiously.

And their heads snap toward each other. Austin's eyes are wide with amusement at their second round of telepathy whereas Ally just looks even more annoyed by the whole thing.

"Argh, get a room, you two," Trish mumbles with a roll of her eyes.

"_What?_"

Austin starts choking on his burger and Ally's voice has gone shrill.

* * *

After class that day, Trish finds Ally at her locker. "So, you and Mr. Popular, huh?"

There's a suggestive lilt to her voice and it causes Ally to suddenly fumble with her physics book to the point of dropping it on the ground.

"Trish..." her voice comes out a strangled mess and she bends down to pick up her book.

"I thought you said nothing happened?" the shorter girl asks curiously.

Ally shuts her locker with a sigh. "Because nothing _did_."

Her eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Then when did you two get so... chummy?"

The slim brunette shakes her hair out of her eyes and they start toward the school doors. "He came into Sonic Boom yesterday," Ally explains. "He was looking for guitar strings and we ended up talking about playing music and stuff." She gives a nonchalant shrug. "That's it."

Trish's eyebrows shoot up skeptically. "And now you're lunch buddies?" she asks flatly.

"We ate lunch together yesterday..." she mumbles shyly. At her friend's surprised face, she quickly tacks on, "Sort of! He joined me when I was eating by myself."

The shorter girl blinks and takes on a look of surprise. "That was... nice of him."

Ally sighs again. "Yeah, but Tilly had the same lunch. I was trying to get him to leave before she noticed. It didn't work," she says with a roll of her eyes.

"Ooh, drama!" Trish laughs. At Ally's annoyed stare, she covers it up with a cough. "Right. So then what happened?"

"Austin stood up for me and told Tilly he'd eat lunch with her another time. So I guess that means... tomorrow or Friday."

"Anything else?" Trish asks curiously.

Ally suddenly shoots her friend a sheepish grin. "Well, I kinda... flung some corn in his face," she says quietly and all the words come out in a quick rush that Trish can't even understand.

The Latina blinks, eyebrows furrowing as she struggles to process her friend's words. "You what?"

"I... flung some corn in his face," Ally repeats in a strained manner, turning red.

Trish opens her mouth and then closes it. "Never mind. I don't wanna know," she decides with a raised eyebrow. "So you guys had lunch yesterday? And bonded over music?" she summarizes, trying to keep up with Ally's bizarre new friendship with the most popular guy in school.

"Oh. Um. We hung out and had dinner together," she comments.

"And let me guess, nothing happened?" Trish asks, somewhat sarcastically, with brows raised high in skepticism and disbelief.

Ally rolls her eyes in Trish's direction. "I know you're thirsty for some juicy gossip, but I can honestly tell you that nothing happened. We had dinner and agreed to be friends. I even made him sign this contract." And then she pulls out the paperwork from her book bag and waves it around wildly. "See! We are officially friends and we both agreed that it's going to _stay_ that way," she says smugly. "So _ha!_"

The look on Trish's face clearly states her uncertainty of Ally's mental state but she quickly shakes it off. "Yeah, I'm not even gonna ask about the contract thing." She's slightly alarmed that Austin's comment during lunch hadn't been a joke.

The taller brunette pouts and puts it away, quite disappointed that she couldn't show her best friend the finer details of Austin's contract. "Okay."

The curly-haired girl raised an incredulous eyebrow. "You know Austin doesn't really know how to be friends with girls, right?" She pauses for a moment, before tacking on, "Well, those are the rumors, anyway."

"Those rumors can't all be true," the taller brunette argues with a frown. "But I'll just terminate the friendship if he decides to get frisky," she adds determinedly when she spots Trish's worried glance.

"Ally, you sure you can handle him?"

Trish isn't trying to dismiss their new found friendship, she just wants to remind her friend about his reputation, to avoid getting hurt in case something were to happen. But she sees the slight hesitation and pause in her friend's face so she knows that those same fears and worries have already crossed Ally's mind.

"He's honestly been nothing but nice to me," she murmurs finally. She winces and adds, "Well, apart from the occasional crude comment here or there. But he actually apologized and I think he's trying to make it up to me by wanting to be my friend," she explains, coming to Austin's defense.

Trish's eyes soften at her admission.

Ally nibbles on her bottom lip. "Do you—do you think I can trust him?" she asks after a hard swallow. "Maybe not now, but eventually?" She winces at how hopeful she sounds, but she continues nibbling on her bottom lip as she looks at her friend.

The Latina freezes. She knows how fragile her best friend's trust happens to be. "Ally, I don't know," she admits quietly. "I just... I don't want to see you hurt, you know?" she says in a worried tone.

At this point, they've both stopped in the middle of the hallway, the doors leading to the parking lot are within a few feet.

Ally's shoulders sag with an invisible weight. A hand comes up to massage her forehead tiredly. "Maybe this was a bad idea," she murmurs sadly. "Do you think he'll be mad if I tell him to forget about the friendship contract?" she asks. "I mean, he already has so many friends—surely, he wouldn't mind if I'm not—"

"What's up, guys?" a cheerful voice rings out as an arm slumps around the slender brunette's shoulders.

She nearly topples over from the weight. She blinks and steadies herself as she turns to see who it was. Austin's boyish grin comes into sight and she silently chides herself for not realizing it sooner.

When he sees that her attention is focused on him, his grin widens toothily.

"Contract," she suddenly blurts, not knowing what else to say.

He blinks at her. "Huh?"

She snaps out of it and her eyes dart back to Trish's worried expression. The Latina watches carefully, ready to jump in and aid her friend if need be. Ally swallows and shakes her head to clear out her doubts about Austin. Now is not the time to focus on that.

"_Contract_," she repeats pointedly as she grabs onto his wrist and removes his arm from her shoulders.

A sheepish expression draws on the tall boy's face. "Oh. Sorry," he apologizes embarrassingly. He politely takes two steps back from the personal space-oriented brunette and holds up his hands in peace. "Sorry," he repeats. "Man, this is going to take some time for me to get used to," he admits with an awkward smile.

Ally's face softens at his genuine attempt to respect her wishes. "Thanks," she says as she finally relaxes.

A silence settles over the three of them.

After some time, the blond frowns and scratches his temple in confusion. "Uh, did I interrupt something?" he asks.

Ally and Trish share a look that pretty much confirms his suspicions. "No," they chorus quickly.

He rolls his eyes and turns to Ally. "You are a horrible liar." Then he turns to Trish. "I'm sure you would have been fine if it hadn't been for this deadweight," he says jokingly as he jerks a thumb to the paler girl.

Trish snickers and Ally blushes bright red.

He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. "So? You two gonna spill or what?" he questions tonelessly.

The girls look to one another. The taller one shifts her weight from one foot to the other. The shorter one starts to examine her nails in a bored fashion.

"I have to get to work," Ally suddenly declares as she starts a brisk walk down the hall. She's stopped when a hand snags the strap of her book bag and keeps her from taking a step further. She turns, annoyed. "What?"

Both Trish and Austin raise their eyebrows at her.

"How are you getting to work?" Trish asks pointedly.

Austin tugs on the strap gently, pulling her back towards them, before letting go. "Did you suddenly get a car?" he asks sarcastically.

She deflates embarrassingly at the lack of an escape. "Oh. Right," she chuckles sheepishly.

"C'mon, I'll give you a ride," Austin offers with a smile.

Trish finally decides to step in, not wanting the two of them to have alone time. "It's fine. We both have to be at the mall for our shifts, so I'll give her a ride," she declares in a forceful tone, leaving Austin with no room to argue. She grabs Ally's wrist and hurries the both of them along.

"Bye!" Ally calls hastily behind her shoulder as she struggles to keep up with her friend as they exit through the doors and make their way into the parking lot.

Austin watches them go, an uneasy frown gracing his features. He shakes it off with a shrug before following after them at a much slower pace.

* * *

The next morning at school, Austin sits at one of the tables outdoors, scrambling to get his first block assignment done before the bell rang in the next eight or so minutes.

He has half a page left. He stares at it suspiciously, as if it's too good to be true and then flips his worksheet over, moaning at the entire blank back page that still needed to be done, meaning he had about thirty more oddly specific questions to go. He debates whether he should desperately try to continue or just close his history book, give up, and grab some breakfast from the cafeteria, instead.

"Okay, we need to talk," a somber voice suddenly demands from across his seat.

Austin raises his eyebrows to find Trish staring back at him, arms folded across the table top. He realizes that both options are now out the window.

"Um. Okay," he agrees carefully because, really, what else is he supposed to say?

"About Ally," Trish adds.

He idly wonders why Trish and Ally are so distrusting of him.

"Alright," he says lightly, putting his things away so he can focus solely on the girl in front of him.

And then Trish takes a deep breath and Austin takes that as a signal to brace himself for the interrogation. "What's going on?"

His eyebrows shoot up. "With Ally?" He frowns. "You know we're just—"

"No," Trish interjects with a firm shake of her head. "Why do you want to be friends with her?" Her eyes narrow suspiciously. "Like, is this some stupid bet or cruel prank or something?" she accuses loudly. "Because I've seen those high school movies! I am thoroughly aware of all those cliches, you know!"

Austin's jaw drops and he spends a moment sputtering at her in sheer terror and disgust. "God, no! Those high school pranks are awful!" he says in a genuinely offended tone. "They're so... mean!" he finishes with an absurd pout.

"Uh-huh," she says mockingly. She doesn't look like she believes him. "But seriously, I mean... why go through all this trouble? With the friendship contract, despite your popularity status and whatever else?"

Austin blinks and can't help but think about how stupid of a question that was. "Because she looked like she needed one," he answers simply.

She looks taken aback. "That's it?" she asks skeptically.

"Every time I see her, she's alone. At Jenny's party, in the hallways, at lunch," he answers, a slight sadness laced through his voice. "I just want to get to know her," he admits with a small shrug.

"Really?" she asks in disbelief.

He frowns at her. "What? Is there something wrong with that?"

Her eyes narrow suspiciously at him. "So you just want to be Ally's friend? And nothing else... _right?_" she questions darkly.

Austin rolls his eyes and drags an irritated hand through his hair. "Okay, I get it. So I have a bit of a reputation. I like to make out with random girls and my relationships with cheerleaders usually don't last much longer than two weeks. I don't sound like the most trustworthy guy and I know that, okay? But Ally's already shot me down and she's made it very clear that she only wants to be friends." He looks at her steadily. "I may have a bad track record with girls, but I know what the word 'no' means," he says, very slowly and very clearly, to make sure Trish understands.

The Latina finally relaxes when she can tell that Austin was being completely honest with her. "That's good to hear," she says with a pleased smile.

Austin relaxes as well, shooting the dark-haired girl an easy shrug. "I like Ally," he says with a grin. "I remember seeing her at Jenny's party, but it wasn't until she stood up for herself when some drunk jock tried to hit on her that she caught my interest," he confesses. "She ended up being way more feisty than I originally gave her credit for," he laughs fondly.

"That's my girl," Trish murmurs with pride.

The grin on his face grows and he raises an eyebrow expectantly at her. "So?" he suddenly says.

She blinks at him, confused. "So, what?" she returns.

"Did I pass?" Her confusion deepens and he smirks a little. "C'mon, let's be honest. You were testing me to see if I'd be a good friend for Ally. Well? What's your final verdict?"

Trish can't help the chuckle that escapes her throat. "Yeah, okay. You're right. I mean, I wasn't trying to be subtle, but still." She fixes him with an even stare, corners of her lips twitching into a trusting smile.

His eyebrow arches higher and he tilts his head to the side. "Well?" he repeats curiously.

She moves to stand up and shoots him an amused smirk. "No final verdict; you're still on trial," she answers smoothly as she leaves the table. "Don't do anything stupid to fuck things up!" she sing-songs over her shoulder, but he can hear the underlying threat in her melodic voice.

Austin stares after her in slight discomfort. He makes a mental note to himself to never get on Trish de la Rosa's bad side.

* * *

Ally has already picked a seat for her first block—front and center for maximum note-taking—had been the first to enter her classroom, matter of fact. There's another minute or two before the bell will ring.

Her phone vibrates in her pocket and she decides to check it since class hadn't officially started yet and the teacher was still out in the hall.

She blinks at the text in surprise.

_Okay. So he doesn't seem like a complete asshole._

Ally smiles to herself, types out a quick response, and hits send. She slips her phone back into her pocket just as the teacher walks into the room and closes the door behind her.

_Glad you approve._

And suddenly, she can't wait for lunch.

* * *

With her lunch tray in hand, Ally leaves the line and scans the cafeteria for an empty table. She's halfway through the large room when she hears her name shouted from her left.

Her head swivels in the direction and she sees Austin grinning and waving at her from a smaller table near the wall. He has a foot propped up on a seat, and she idly wonders if that was his method for saving it for her.

She wavers for a moment, but Trish's text message flashes in her mind and she relaxes. If Austin's okay in Trish's book, she's fairly sure she can learn to trust him. Also, Ally knew for a fact that her tolerance level for people was generally much higher than her friend's, anyway. She relaxes further and makes her way to the blond, unable to help the slow smile forming on her face.

"Hey," she greets lightly once she reaches the table.

Austin's foot slides off the chair with a heavy _thump _and he gestures to the chair. "Have a seat," he says with a grin.

"Thanks." She takes a quick glance to make sure the seat of the chair isn't dirty before sitting down.

"No problem," he says. He looks over to the table where the popular kids sat. "I'd rather not sit with Tilly," he says with a shudder.

Ally laughs at his admission and cocks her head to the side. "You know, you did promise her you'd eat lunch with her sometime this week," she reminds him with a small smile. "You should make good on that promise."

His face scrunches in displeasure. "You're a much better person than I am, Ally Dawson," he declares gravely. "I'm just going to ignore her and if she keeps pestering me, I'll keep making excuses."

"Thought you liked being worshiped?" she teases with a mischievous grin.

"Tilly has her own special brand of crazy that I'd rather not deal with unless absolutely necessary."

She laughs again and shakes her head. "I'll be honest, I can understand why you'd rather just stay away." She looks over at the table and sees the clingy girl seething in fury as she glares daggers at the brunette. Ally waves in a friendly manner at the deranged blonde and turns back to Austin. "I do believe she's planning my early demise," she states with a nonchalant air.

He raises an eyebrow. "Yeah?" he mutters curiously as he eyes her lunch.

Ally frowns and looks down at her pepperoni pizza. "Why are you—?"

"Then I really should test your food for you," Austin interrupts purposefully. At her baffled look, he reaches over and snags the slice of pizza off her plate. "I mean, she may have poisoned your food," he points outs as he takes a bite. "You can never be too careful," he adds around a mouthful of cheesy pizza; _her _cheesy pizza, matter of fact.

Despite Austin's thoughtful gesture, Ally sits there and stares at him in an annoyed confusion. "You're doing that thing again. That thing where you make me question our friendship," she says tonelessly.

He swallows the bite and points her pizza at her. "I'll have you know, our friendship's a beautiful thing, Ally; don't question it," he orders sternly.

She snorts derisively and shakes her head. "Can I have my lunch now?" she asks wryly with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, you can. I'm still alive so that means this pizza is good to go," he says as he places it on her lunch tray.

Ally takes a quick bite of the pizza to keep from grinning at Austin's absurdity. He grins at her and takes a bite from his own slice of pepperoni and they continue for a while in comfortable silence.

He finishes off his pizza and after he swallows his last bite, he turns back to Ally. His eyes glance down to his empty plate, but he catches the side of fries on hers. "You want me to test those fri—ow!"

She quickly smacks the hand snaking out to steal some of her fries. "You know what, Austin? As sweet as it is that you're willing to sacrifice yourself as my own personal food tester, I think I'll just risk it," she says in a fake, saccharine-sweet voice.

He sniffs and turns his head snottily. "Fine. But when Tilly manages to bribe a desperate lunch lady with disgustingly large piles of dirty money to poison your next meal of chicken fingers, that's on you... and your dead body."

Ally laughs and pops a fry into her mouth. "I think I'll be okay," she says confidently with a small smirk. "But thanks for trying to look out for me," she adds with a playful roll of her eyes.

Seeing them laugh so happily through lunch finally makes Tilly snap like a frail, brittle twig and she marches over to the pair.

"Hello."

The greeting's more of a snarling growl, really.

Ally flinches and Austin stills.

The sitting teens look at each other, brace themselves, and turn back to Tilly.

"Heeey," they chorus weakly with a small, pathetic wave of their hands.

"Austin Moon, I don't get it."

Austin shrugs. "It's okay. As mere human beings, we're not expected to understand everything in this vast universe," he says with as much faux-wisdom as he can muster.

Ally bites on the inside of her cheek to keep from howling with laughter. She brings up a hand to cover her mouth just in case.

Tilly's eyes narrow and her arms fold across her chest. "Are you, like, trying to revoke your popularity card?"

Austin crosses his arms on the table and leans forward to regard her with an intrigued expression. "You know, I don't think I ever got handed one of those."

Tilly rolls her eyes. "They're not_ real_, Austin," she informs him impatiently.

"Man, at my old school, I got handed a badge for being popular. You guys don't even hand out cards here? What a joke," he complains with a disgusted shake of his head.

Ally finally laughs at that, no longer able to hold it back due to Tilly's cluelessness and Austin's ridiculous comments. Austin smiles at the sound but Tilly gives her a threatening glare. "Sorry, sorry," she coughs as she calms her laughing fit. "I was just, you know, thinking back to this really funny joke I heard the other day... involving ocelots and... narwhals," she lies in a vague, awkward manner. She purposefully ignores Austin's incredulous stare as she clears her throat and fixes Tilly with an apologetic look. "That was incredibly inappropriate of me, sorry."

Tilly rolls her eyes and turns back to the boy. "Austin!" the blonde girl whines, stomping her foot. "If you keep hanging out with her, your popularity's going to go down the toilet!"

"Oh no, how tragic!" Ally coos tonelessly. She props an elbow on the table, rests her cheek against her closed fist and pops a fry into her mouth as she watches the two popular teens hash it out.

The boy gives Tilly a perplexed look. "You're, like, the third person to have brought this up." His eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. "Um. I clearly don't care about my popularity nearly as much as everyone else in this school does. When... did this become a popular discussion topic? Did I miss the memo?" He turns to Ally and looks at her pointedly. "No, seriously. Was there a memo?"

She nods solemnly. "Fliers, too. They were posted all over the school."

"Did you hand any out?"

"I had to do my part in spreading the awareness of Austin Moon's popularity, of course."

"What fliers?" Tilly demands stupidly as the jokes sail clear above her head.

Ally face palms and Austin rolls his eyes in annoyance.

He sighs, as patiently as he can. "Look, Tilly," he begins slowly. The blonde perks up at having his direction and she nods ecstatically to show that he has her undivided attention. "As much as I... uh, appreciate your dedication to keeping my popularity intact, I can honestly say I couldn't care less about being popular."

Tilly gasps and looks at him in horror. "You don't care about your popularity?"

Even Ally looks a bit surprised as she blinks rapidly and focuses on him, curious to hear what his next words will be.

Austin shrugs and laughs lightly. "What's the big deal? You tell everyone I'm not 'cool' anymore and then what? If some of my friends stick around, then great, I'll know who to keep close. And to all the people who actually give a shit about the high school social status and decide to drop me, then fuck 'em." He rolls his eyes. "Seriously. Why does everyone care so much about some stupid label?"

Ally turns to face him, wide-eyed and stunned. "Oh my God, you have a functioning brain underneath that mess of bleached hair? And your own opinions that aren't swayed by your social peers or the mass public?"

"I'm not just another pretty face, Ally," he informs her as he gestures with a flourish to his face.

Tilly looks horrified from his little speech. "Oh. My. God," she finally exclaims, the words came out in a crazed sort of wheeze.

He raises an eyebrow at her reaction. "So, uh, are we done here?" he asks as he scratches his temple thoughtfully.

Ally watches her blonde tormenter, wondering if her head will spontaneously combust. She knows that's not really humanly possible, but man, the way that girl's eyes are popping out of her skull is really starting to make Ally reconsider...

Tilly lets out a guttural screech that makes them jump in their seats. With a deep breath, she stomps back to her table in an absolutely furious huff. She flings herself into her seat and spends the rest of the time brooding and pouting at the pair of teenagers.

They both shield their faces with a hand and crouch over the table in slight fear.

"Just don't look at her," Ally hisses, keeping her eyes pointed downward.

Austin shudders. "I can feel her crazy laser eyes trying to burn a hole into my flesh."

A beat passes by.

Ally is still staring at the ground with a hand shielding her eyes. "She's still glaring at us, isn't she?"

"Do you feel your skin crawling?"

"... A little."

"I feel it, too. That means she's still staring."

Another beat passes.

Finally, Ally snaps out of it with a shake of her head. She straightens up and drops her hand. "Oh, this is ridiculous! I haven't been afraid of Tilly in years!" she says with an irritated roll of her eyes.

Austin is much more hesitant in dropping his hand. At Ally's urging look, he does so. He gives her a timid smile as he sits up straighter.

"Good," she says with a firm nod. "Don't let her know she's getting to you. She doesn't deserve that satisfaction."

He laughs. "Okay, okay. Good point," he admits with a more confident smile.

They sit in silence for a few seconds before Ally catches his attention with a slight clearing of her throat.

"Hey, Austin?" she begins uncertainly.

He blinks and looks at her. "Yeah?"

"Did you really mean all that? Your speech about popularity, I mean," she wonders quietly.

He shrugs but looks up to meet her large, doe eyes, rounded with hope and the beginnings of trust. "Who have I been eating lunch with these past few days, huh?" he asks pointedly with a smirk.

She flushes and moves her lunch tray closer to him. "Wanna share my fries?" she murmurs shyly under her breath. She's doing her best to avert her eyes as she waits for his answer.

"I'd love to." His smirk widens as he grabs a crispy fry and taps her on the nose with it, before popping it into his mouth.

Her eyes widen in surprise and she looks at him oddly. "Don't boop my nose," she orders as she reaches up to rub at her nose.

"Uh, I'm sorry, Miss Dawson, but where was nose-booping exempt from our contract?"

"Boundaries, Mr. Moon, boundaries."

"... Damn. Just got lawyered."


	5. And Now, the Gang is Complete

Here's another chapter. Thanks to Miss-Rainy-Skies for reading over this per usual and thanks to all of you guys and your support!

So I directly reference Firefly in this. It's my favorite show of all time. And I'm going to stop here, before I end up talking about it for the next twenty pages.

Basically, I don't own it. Because if I did, it would have gotten _at least _six seasons and a movie.

(And that was a Community reference. Ba-bam.)

(And because I'm a total nerd, Abed's six seasons comment was about The Cape, which starred Summer Glau who was also in Firefly. Both shows were canceled after one season. Firefly was amazing. The Cape was not.)

* * *

"So I heard Austin admitted that he was too good for the social hierarchy at lunch today."

No introduction, no hello, no warning of an appearance.

Just Trish's usual bluntness.

"How come nothing cool happens when it's the three of _us_ at lunch? Just the two of you?"

Ally hangs her head at her friend's comments. She turns to her friend as patiently as she can. "He just stood up for me. It's really not a big deal."

"Oh, people are starting to think there's a deal."

"I can assure you, there's no deal."

"Well, big or small, deal or no deal, that's what people are thinking," Trish grins.

They don't mention the way she seamlessly wove a reference to the game show into that sentence.

"Please," Ally scoffs. "Austin and I? A deal? That's ridiculous."

Trish holds up her hands in mock surrender to placate the taller girl. "Hey! I'm just keeping you updated on the gossip of your life."

She frowns at Trish, unimpressed with her words. "I don't need any updates on my life. I think I'm perfectly updated on my life. Considering the fact that, oh yeah, it's _my life_," she says sarcastically, her tone dropping lower and lower with each sentence.

The Latina chuckles. "There's more about you and Austin if you're interested," she teases.

Ally sighs. "Can you do something about the rumors? Please?"

Her friend finally appears sympathetic as she nods understandingly. "Okay, okay. I will," she promises.

"Thank you," Ally says. And then she rolls her eyes. "I don't get it! I don't know why people think there's something going on between me and Austin in the first place. _Everybody _knows he only dates cheerleaders!" she says irritably as she finally closes her locker.

Trish smirks. "That's why everybody's so excited. You're _not_ a cheerleader and Austin keeps standing up for you to Tilly." She laughs momentarily. "It's, uh, pretty sweet, actually."

Ally smile a little tiredly at that. "It _was _pretty sweet of him," she admits softly.

"Sweet of who?" a curious voice suddenly sounds from over her shoulder.

She gasps and whirls around to face their new company to find Austin standing there with a perplexed look on his face. He smiles ever so slightly at startling her.

"No one!" she blurts. "Just—it's nothing. No one. I'm not—it's nothing." She coughs and tries to keep the red out of her cheeks.

His eyebrows furrow. "Did I interrupt something again?" he asks, sounding mildly annoyed.

Trish grins wickedly. "Kind of. Ally was just telling me how _sweet _it was of _you _to stand up for her at lunch today. And to Tilly, no less."

Austin's annoyance melts into a pleased, Cheshire cat grin. "Oh, really?"

Ally glares at Trish before directing the same glare at Austin. "I just gave you a compliment. Be smart and do not say anything that might make me take it back," she warns.

Austin laughs out loud and shakes his head at her. "Alright, fair enough," he muses lightly. He tilts his head and aims a smile at her. "But, uh, I wasn't going for compliments, you know. I was just trying to be a good friend," he says with a shrug. "And Tilly seriously needed some sense knocked into her, anyway."

Ally purses her lips and quirk them to the side as she regards him in awe. "Austin Moon, are you being humble right now?" she asks in mock shock.

He rolls his eyes at her teasing remark. "Oh, whatever," he mutters dismissively with a tilt of his head.

Ally chuckles for a second before clearing her throat. The sound catches his attention and he raises an eyebrow at her in question. "But thanks. For standing up for me." And then she rolls her eyes playfully. "Even though I am totally capable of fighting my own battles."

His lips twitch into a teasing grin. "You? Fighting? Battles?" He gives a derisive snort of incredulous laughter. "Those are three words that should not be in the same sentence," he scoffs. "You are _scrawny_."

Her eyes flash dangerously and he delights in seeing the ire in them.

"I am _not _scrawny," she scowls indignantly. A deep inhale and a slow exhale makes her chest heave.

Austin smirks at her and shoots her a challenging look. "I bet you couldn't even win an arm wrestle with a toddler." And then his eyes scan the length of her body before reaching back up to her gaze again.

Ally rolls her eyes and tears her gaze away from Austin's to meet Trish's. "Tell him I'm not scrawny," she demands. "C'mon, Trish. Tell him."

Trish sighs and reaches out to poke at her upper arm. "You are pretty thin and bony," the Latina points out. "It'd be a struggle against that toddler," she jokes.

Austin laughs good-naturedly as Ally pouts dejectedly.

"Gee, thanks, Trish," she mumbles.

Austin claps a gentle hand on Ally's shoulder. "But duly noted, killer, I will no longer attempt to fight your battles for you," he promises with a small smirk.

She rolls her eyes and shrugs off his hand. "I can handle myself!" she insists. "Especially if it's just Tilly."

The look on his face immediately darkens at the name. "Yeah. And how long has she been like that to you, now?" he asks as he studies her closely.

Ally waves a dismissive hand and shrugs indifferently. "She's been slandering my name since Kindergarten."

He lets out a low whistle. "Damn. That long?" he murmurs in surprise. His eyebrows scrunch up. "Why does she hate you so much?"

"I don't even remember!" Ally says with a slow, dry laugh.

"She just irrationally hates you?" he asks incredulously.

Ally bats her eyelashes at him. "But I think she loves you more than she hates me," she says with a teasing smirk.

Austin groans. "Don't remind me."

Trish turns to Austin and shakes her head. "Dude. Tilly is _scary_-obsessed with you."

He winces. "I know," he moans. "I keep dropping atomic bomb-sized hints that I'm not interested, but none of it is working."

"She's so desperate to throw her cat at you. And by 'cat', I mean the one in her pants," Trish says with a roll of her eyes.

Austin's eyes bulge out of their sockets and he promptly chokes on his own spit from her words. "Oh my God," he says, sounding like a strangled mess.

Ally turns to Austin. "Get used to it, that doesn't ever go away."

"Being absolutely horrified?" he mutters with a shiver as he stares at the Latina in pure fright.

Trish shrugs. "I just tell it how I see it." She smirks at the taller boy. "You're just lucky she never made the cheerleading squad; otherwise, she'd be totally convinced that you're destined for each other.

The blond rolls his eyes. "I wouldn't date her even if she _was _a cheerleader," he states flatly.

"Actually, that reminds me," Ally speaks up suddenly. The other two turn to look at her curiously and she gives Austin a curious frown. "While your speech at lunch was really quite noble and surprisingly mature, what's with your fetish with cheerleaders? If you don't care about popularity, why only date girls at the top of the school's social hierarchy?"

Austin pulls a face. "Don't make it sound creepy by calling it a fetish."

"Obsession?"

"Also ew."

Ally rolls her eyes. "Whatever the case, why don't you try dating someone based on a list of redeeming personality traits longer than their cheer skirt?" she quips.

The cheerleaders at Marino High weren't exactly mean. But they... left little to be desired, in terms of wit and intelligence and... anything else that didn't involve looks or natural flexibility.

Austin shoots her an amused look. "You got a thing against cheerleaders? What, did you try out and not make the squad and now you've lost the ability to ever be cheerful again?" He gives her a wicked smirk. "You know, you'd look pretty ho—"

She jabs at him in the chest with a pointed finger. "_Con_. _Tract_," she says in a low voice with steely eyes.

Austin's smirk doesn't disappear as he slowly taps his finger against hers, inching it away from his chest. To Ally's credit, she doesn't back down from her angry glare. However, now their gazes are locked and they seem to have forgotten about their third party member.

Trish, who has all but faded into the background at this point, continues to watch the two of them in silent awe. She doesn't remember ordering ten thousand tons of sexual tension, but there it is.

"Alright, alright," Austin finally says airily, with the rumbles of a chuckle at the back of his throat. "I'm sorry," he adds in a softer, gentler tone.

Ally lowers her finger. "You're such a cad, Austin Moon," she mutters with a roll of her eyes.

He winces and his hands spring to his chest. "Ouch. You've wounded me," he says with tones of mock hurt.

Trish enjoys this back and forth banter more than she should, she realizes, because when Tilly stalks up to the three of them, her immediate reaction isn't to punch a locker, it's genuine disappointment that Austin and Ally will have to take a pause.

"Oh look," the blonde thrills, "it's pathetic Ally Dawson and her little pathetic posse." Her little group of followers laugh in high-pitch giggles as they continue walking by. "Such a shame that _Austin Moon_ decided to waste his time with her," she calls loudly over her shoulder.

Austin rolls his eyes and turns to look at the girls. "Oh my God. She can't be serious. I feel like I'm living a cliché in a shitty teen movie."

Ally shoots him a bemused look. "I don't think she knows the difference between reality and that movie genre, to be perfectly honest."

"Argh," Trish mutters. "Ally, I wish you would just let me punch the stupid off her face, already."

Ally rolls her eyes. "Her face isn't worth the bruises on your knuckles, Trish," she says haughtily. "Although, black and blue may be an improvement as opposed to her permanently constipated-looking face." She stops in horror at her words.

Austin and Trish share an impressed glance.

She winces and deflates shamefully. "That was mean of me. I should take that back." Her shoulders slump tiredly and she expels a lungful of air. "I hate how she can get under my skin like that," she mutters regretfully.

"You can't take back the truth, you know," Trish says with a delighted grin. She personally loves it when Ally doesn't always play nice.

Austin nods solemnly. "Damn, you _cold_, Ally D," he utters in a smooth, jazzy cadence.

Ally flushes. "Kindly shut up, Austin."

"Whatever you say, Ally D."

Ally D hopes and prays that the nickname won't stick.

* * *

The next morning, Ally catches Austin with his usual group of friends huddled against a row of lockers, laughing and talking without a care in the world.

Clearly, Tilly isn't nearly as powerful as she believes herself to be, as Austin seems just as popular as ever. She can't help but smile exasperatedly as she watches him send a wink to a cheerleader walking by.

She's relieved, to be honest, because as sweet as Austin's speech was, she'd feel terrible if she'd been the reason for his social downfall. A voice reminds her that technically, it would have been his own doing, but she still can't shake the feeling that she participated in some way.

She's used to being alone, but she's not quite sure if Austin is.

She doesn't say hi and quickly shuffles along to get to her locker.

* * *

"Hey," Austin greets cheerfully as he joins Ally at the lunch table. He eyes her plate, consisting of a small side salad, a fruit cup, and a cheeseburger. He grins at her. "Avoiding the chicken tenders?"

"Tilly did seem pretty murderous yesterday," she comments with a quirky smile. "I decided that I shouldn't risk it," she jokes.

He laughs. "Well, it's a good thing she doesn't have this lunch, huh?"

She nods emphatically. "I seriously need a break from her," she sighs.

Austin looks at her sympathetically. And then he blinks, as if noticing a missing presence. "Hey, where's Trish?" he asks curiously. "Doesn't she have this lunch?"

Ally nods and holds up her phone. "She told me she may be running a little late, though. But I'm not sure what she's up to, exactly."

"Oh. Well, you have me keeping you company. What more do you need?" he says cockily. And then he puffs out his chest at her.

She stares at him flatly. "Austin. Please. If you turn on your charm any further, I may become permanently blinded," she says in a voice dripping with acidic sarcasm.

He opens his mouth like he's about to defend himself but then his eyes leave hers and trail a little over her shoulder. "No way..." he mutters as he starts to grin excitedly.

She frowns. "What? Did a hot cheerleader walk by?" she asks as she twists around in her seat to see what could have distracted the blond.

She sees a tall redhead holding a lunch tray and looking around, clearly a little lost.

Confusion and horror courses through her and her jaw drops a little. She turns back to him and leans her head forward and drops her voice into a low whisper. "Uh, Austin? Is there something you've been struggling with? And do you need to talk about it?"

Hey, she's not being judgey, alright? She's totally for gay rights.

He looks at her, absolutely baffled, until the implications of her words seeps in. And then he gives her a thoroughly alarmed look. "What is wrong you?" he hisses. "You know I am _firmly_ into girls!"

She frowns and shrugs a little. "I dunno. Maybe you were over compensating by chasing after all that cheerleader tail."

Austin decides that he can't deal with her right now. "I can't deal with you right now."

"Whoa, Austin, maybe you should work on being a little bit more open-minded," she teases.

He rolls his eyes and one of his arm shoots straight up into the air. "Hey! Hey, Dez!" he shouts as he waves his arm around.

The redhead spins around, trying to figure out the source of the shouting. When his eyes land on Austin, he breathes a little sigh of relief and stalks over to take a seat at their table.

Austin claps a brotherly hand on the other boy's shoulder. "Hey, man! I haven't seen you all summer. How have you been?" he asks with a friendly laugh.

"Yeah, I didn't realize the film classes I was taking all summer would take up so much of my time, sorry, man," he explains. "But I've been pretty good. You?"

Austin shrugs. "I've been okay." He grins. "So you have this lunch now?"

Dez nods. "Yeah. I had to get some classes switched around. But I think my schedule is finally complete," he says with a roll of his eyes. And then his eyes land on Ally curiously.

Austin notices the look and jumps in, about to introduce the two. "Oh, hey, Dez, this is—"

"Hang on, hang on. I'm pretty sure I know your name... Argh, what _is_ it?" he mutters as he squints at her thoughtfully.

Ally and Austin share an amused glance.

Now that he's sitting beside her, she's able to place where she's seen him before. Dez was part of the crew that put together the school news—Messages from Marino—but he worked behind the camera and was seldom ever in front of it. What she knew about him came solely from Trish—although she's pretty sure they were grossly exaggerated about the redhead—who also worked on the school news crew. She, of course, preferred to be front and center on camera.

They tended to butt heads. And that was an understatement.

Ally isn't sure her best friend will like the new addition to their lunch table.

"Lily? Petunia? Rose? Is it at all a flower name? No? … Weeds? Is she named after a weed? No? Uh, okay. Is it Julia? Briana? How about—"

"_ALLY!_" Austin finally bellows impatiently as he palms his face and shakes his head in complete exasperation. "Holy shit, Dez. It's Ally, okay? Her name is _Ally_."

The amused brunette shift her eyes from the offended redhead to the annoyed blond. "I'm sure he would have gotten it eventually," she says with a straight face. "I mean, how many female names are out there?"

Dez grins at her. "Okay! Now you guess mine!"

"Dez," she says with a small giggle.

He deflates. "You already knew it, didn't you?" He sounds disappointed.

Austin looks surprised. "You guys know each other?"

Ally laughs. "Sorry, but you work on the news crew with Trish and—"

"Trish?!" The redhead gasps and recoils in fear. "I hate working with that beastly, nefarious, absolutely awful girl!"

"Huh, funny. I said that same thing about you," a voice suddenly drawls.

Three heads whip around to the Latina glaring at Dez with absolute disdain.

"Only my exact words were 'fugly ginger'."

Dez inhales and exhales indignantly. "_Rude_," he sniffs.

Austin and Ally share another glance. And a telepathic thought.

_Oh shit._

Trish frowns and glares even harder at the redhead. "Why the hell are you sitting here? Go find another table," she growls.

"Austin invited me," he mutters. He glances between the two. "I didn't know you guys were friends."

Trish opens her mouth to say something but Ally places a gentle hand on her friend's forearm. "Trish," she says in a soft, patient voice.

The short-tempered girl takes a deep, calming breath and depresses considerably. "Whatever," she mumbles as she turns around to walk away.

Ally watches her for a second and turns back to shoot Austin an apologetic look before immediately shooting up out of her seat to follow her. "Sorry," she says quietly. She doesn't wait for his reply as she leaves the table.

A part of him wants to stop her, but he doesn't and his hands grip his thighs underneath the table, to keep from grabbing her wrists, and he watches her run off after her friend.

"Trish, Trish, wait up!"

Austin sighs as they exit the lunchroom. He turns to Dez. "Sorry about that, dude."

Dez shakes his head. "Chicks, man."

"Tell me about it," Austin snorts before throwing his head back to chug his chocolate milk.

* * *

Ally continues following Trish long after they've left the lunch room.

"I'm not eating lunch with him," Trish announces, still staring resolutely ahead.

"No, you're not," she agrees. "You're wandering through the halls and your stomach's growling," she states in a motherly tone.

Another gurgle from the shorter girl. Half a second later, Ally's stomach joins in.

"Whatever," Trish mumbles. "I'll just hit up the vending machines later."

Ally sighs lightly. "Why don't we go back to lunch?"

"I'd rather be strung up by my toenails and hung upside down than eat lunch with that idiot. I'd rather jump rope with my own intestines than look at his face. I'd rather—sorry, am I making you queasy?"

The taller brunette clutches at her stomach and gives a hard swallow. "Yeah, just a bit," she admits.

"My bad."

Ally hesitates. "Trish, I think you're being kind of... irrational," she says in a slow, careful voice. She's used to Trish misdirecting her outbursts at her and while she can handle it, but nobody really likes getting yelled at.

Trish snorts but finally whirls around right as they turn a corner. "I'm irrational, you're rational, it's how our friendship works," she says dryly.

"Okay," Ally murmurs quietly. And then she takes a seat right in the middle of the hallway. She leans against the lockers and pats a hand on the tile next to her.

The Latina throws her head back and groans. "Can we please not talk about this? Can you, for once, not try to talk some sense into me? Can't I just hate Freckle Face until the end of time without you doing anything about it?"

Ally laughs a little as she looks up at her friend. "If I did all of that, then what would be the point of our friendship?" she jokes with a small smile. "It's kind of our job to try to talk some sense into each other as friends, isn't it?" she says with another laugh.

"Can't we just vapidly shop for cute clothes while talking about boys?" she jokes.

"Later, if you want," she says with a shrug. "But now, we talk."

"You know I hate Dez," she grumbles as she finally joins Ally on the tiled floor.

Ally nods. "Right. But if me and you are friends... and Austin and Dez are friends... and Austin and I are friends... It would kind of make things easier if the four of us could just eat lunch together," she points out. "What can we do to make that happen?" she asks as she looks at Trish.

"Kill Dez and make it look like a freak blender accident," she deadpans.

Ally shakes her head and makes an incorrect buzzer noise. "Wrong!" She thinks over Trish's words. "But points for creativity," she muses.

The curly-haired girl bangs her head against the metal locker behind her in angst. "Argh. I don't know!" she wines. "But I already have to see him way too much doing Messages from Marino. I don't want to have lunch with him, too!"

Messages from Marino was an elective and Trish had taken it since being a sophomore due to the relative ease of the class. Especially since she just got to bask in the spotlight of being on camera, for the most part. Sometimes, she had to help write scripts or perform a skit, but Ally knew how much Trish actually liked being on the school news.

Ally is pretty sure Trish doesn't even remember why she hates the redhead so passionately.

The fair brunette heaves a sigh and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "Let's say you and Dez call a truce." At Trish's horrified stare, she holds up a hand to silence her. "Wait, let me finish. So pretend you guys call a truce. The four of us will be able to hang out at lunch. And don't you think it would make working on Messages from Marino with Dez a lot _easier_ if you two called a truce?"

Trish snorts and shakes her head. "No way!" she frowns. "If you wanna eat lunch with your new, popular boyfriend, then go ahead! I'll just eat lunch in the bathroom," she growls.

Ally flushes. "Trish! You know that this isn't about Austin!" she insists, trying not to sound upset at her friend's accusation.

The darker brunette looks guilty and sighs tiredly. "I'm sorry, Ally. I know that... I just... I don't like Dez," she mumbles with a shrug. There's a finality to her words and it makes the other girl frown sadly.

"Okay," she finally says with a shrug. "We'll just eat lunch separately. Me and you, and Dez and Austin on the other side of the lunchroom. Does that sound good?" she asks with a small smile.

"No, it doesn't," Trish mutters shamefully.

Ally's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "It doesn't?" she echoes in surprise.

Trish rolls her eyes. "I'm being a shitty friend. You _clearly _want to eat lunch with Austin and I'm preventing that."

"Austin isn't important to me," Ally says with a frown. "_You _are."

Trish raises an eyebrow. "So you're saying you wouldn't be disappointed if you couldn't eat lunch with Austin?"

"Um." She wavers. "I have lunch with him on A days, anyway. And I'm perfectly happy with having lunch with you on B days. _Without _Austin," she adds in a forceful tone.

The Latina shakes her head knowingly. "You're gonna miss eating lunch with him _every_ day," she sing-songs with a teasing grin.

Ally rolls her eyes. "Will not," she protests.

"Ally Dawson, you would _totally _miss eating lunch with me," a pompous voice declares. "I happen to be delightful company."

The brunette frowns as the familiar blond steps forth from around the corner. "Jeez. Do you always have to pop up like that? It's beyond creepy. I'm going to have to put a bell on you," she mutters.

"I'll wear it with pride," he smirks.

Ally rolls her eyes and looks at him inquisitively. "What are you doing here?"

Austin squats down across from Ally and hands them both energy bars and bottles of water. At their confused, but grateful glances, he shrugs casually. "You two skipped lunch," he says in way of explanation. He grins a little. "You've got to be hungry, right? Dez and I stopped by the vending machines."

Ally blinks in surprise at the thoughtful gesture. "Well... thanks, Austin," she murmurs as she opens her energy bar to take a bite. She smiles around the mouthful and Austin's grin widens as he watches her chew.

"Good?" he asks as he moves to sit in a cross-legged position.

She swallows. "Not the most nutritious lunch, but it's something," she grins before taking another bite.

Trish finally sighs and stands up. "I'm going to leave." The two teens look up at her. "Ally, you keep eating that energy bar. Austin, you keep staring at her while she eats. I know, she's adorable when she eats and you just can't look away, but make sure you keep your eyes in your sockets," she says with a roll of her eyes.

Ally's eyes widen and she coughs for a while before fully swallowing her bite. She takes a swig of water as Austin smirks at her.

"It's true, though. You _are _pretty adorable when you eat."

Her cheeks turn red and she covers her mouth with a hand. "You're making me nervous. Let me eat my energy bar in peace," she mumbles as she averts her eyes and takes another bite under her hand.

Trish shakes her head as she continues to stare down at them. "God, you two," she mumbles in fond exasperation. And then she clears her throat. "Austin, where's Dez?"

Austin tears his teasing gaze away from Ally to look up at Trish with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. "Uh, he's waiting for me down the hall, actually. Why?" He moves to stand up, but her hand stops him.

"I'm doing Ally a favor," she says. "Thanks for the water bottle and the snack, Austin," she says before she sets off around the corner.

Ally stares after her friend in surprise. "Huh."

Austin turns back to her. "What?"

"I think she's going to try to call a truce with Dez..."

His brows shoot straight up. "That's good, though, right?" he sounds adorably and naively hopeful.

She purses her lips in thought. "Well... it's definitely with a good _intention_... but knowing Trish... she'll either strangle him with his own suspenders or..." she trails off ominously.

He looks alarmed. "Or _what?_" he demands with wide, rounded eyes brimming with horror.

Ally quickly pushes herself up into a stand position. "We should follow them," she says hurriedly. "Just in case."

Austin gets up behind her and they quietly pad across the tiled hallway, eyes open and searching for firey red hair or curly dark locks.

Ally hears talking and throws herself as silently as she can against a locker. "Shh!" she murmurs as her hand shoots out behind her and pushes against Austin's chest, making him back up against the locker next to hers with a loud grunt.

_Huh_, she thinks, and then she blanks due to the nice, muscular chest underneath her palm. She quickly draws her hand back before he notices her momentary pause.

"I think I hear them," she whispers as she pokes her head around a corner.

Austin leans forward to try and see around the corner as well. "Do you see them?" he whispers.

"Yeah, they're right there. Hang on." And then she bends down a little so Austin can take full advantage of his height to peer around the corner above her head.

He spends four seconds contemplating the nice scent of her shampoo before he reminds himself to focus on the other two teens arguing in hushed whispers.

"—and you're just so—"

"As _if_, Gingersnaps! You're not—"

"I _have _a name, you know!"

"_I don't care_, you know!"

Ally turns her head to look up at Austin. He frowns and looks down at her.

"Uh oh," they whisper together.

"At least she's not reaching for his suspenders?" Austin tries with a wince.

"Okay! Just shut up for a second!" Trish finally bellows as she runs a hand through her hair. Dez snaps his jaw shut and waits for her to continue with an annoyed expression. "Look. I don't like you."

Dez glares at her. "I know," he says dryly.

"And you don't like me."

"Right," Dez says slowly. "Is there a point to this? Will you be getting there soon?"

Trish rolls her eyes. "We don't like each other, but our friends do. I don't know how close you and Austin are, but if Ally wants to eat lunch with the two of you, then I'm willing to... to... you know—" she breaks off to gesture crazily while making various faces of disgust and annoyance.

Dez frowns. "I don't know sign language," he says, without a single hint of sarcasm.

"Oh my God," Trish mutters as she runs her hands over her face in exasperation. It proves to be too difficult to say 'truce' so she settles on saying, "I'm calling for a cease-fire," after a deep, concentrating breath.

Dez's eyebrows shoot up.

So do Austin and Ally's from behind their little corner.

"A cease-fire?" Dez echoes carefully.

"We don't have to do it for ourselves," Trish mutters in the awkward silence.

Dez's eyebrows scrunch up. "You want us to play nice for Austin and Ally?" he concludes.

"Aww..." Ally utters softly.

"Shh!" Austin hisses from above her.

The spying brunette rolls her eyes but doesn't say anything else.

She nods resignedly. "We can go back to hating each other when we're doing the news."

The redhead looks at her with a bemused expression. "Do you _like_ hating me?" he asks dryly.

"It's what I'm used to," she shoots back with a challenging glare. "C'mon, playing nice at lunch for the kiddies will be tough enough. At least when we're doing to news, we can go back to familiar territory," she jokes.

Austin and Ally frown in utter offense. They turn to look at one another again. '_Kiddies?_' they mouth silently to each other.

Dez nods. "Fine. In front of Austin and Ally, we're... acquaintances. When we're doing Messages from Marino, we're, uh..." he trails off, trying to think of a good word. And then he lights up and snaps his fingers. "Reavers! We're pretty much like reavers," he says with a firm little nod.

Trish blinks at him in confusion. "What the hell is a reaver?"

"A cannibalistic rage monster from Joss Whedon's genius Firefly, uh _duh_," he says in a voice like he can't believe she doesn't know what he's talking about.

"Oh God. Don't speak your nerd language in front me." She grimaces at him. "It sounds _foul_."

Dez rolls his eyes. "Fine. I won't disgust you with my amazing references to pop culture," he says dryly.

The Latina also rolls her eyes. "Let's shake on it," she says as she holds out a hand.

"Okay," Dez agrees as he spits into the palm of his. He goes to shake her hand.

"Oh my _fucking _God!" Trish bellows angrily in pure disgust, yanking her own hand back before Dez's sure to be acidic spit burned the flesh right off her bones. "Never mind!" And with that, she stomps off down the hall, shuddering in horror.

Dez blinks at his hand and then calls out cluelessly after her. "Was it my spit?"

From their hiding spots, Austin and Ally simultaneously face palm.

They wait until Dez shrugs carelessly and walks away before coming out from around their corner.

"Well," Ally begins shortly before abruptly cutting herself off. "That went much better than I had anticipated."

"And what had you anticipated?" Austin asks curiously.

"A mess of entrails mixed with Dez's suspenders," she states very seriously.

The blond flinches and shudders. "Oh, gross."

"You think the truce—or 'cease-fire', as they've dubbed it—will last?" she asks curiously.

"I hope so," he sighs. He looks at her thoughtfully. "I really don't want to have to pick between having lunch with you and Dez," he sighs.

Her eyes widen in surprise at his confession. "Well, there's always, um, we still have lunch on A days," she coughs quietly, averting her eyes.

He shrugs. "I like seeing you every day. Having both lunches would assure that," he points out with a small smirk.

Her eyes widen further and she can feel her cheeks start to heat up.

The bell rings, signaling the next class, and startling both teens.

"Oh, look, the bell," she grins nervously. "We should go! To class!" She turns away and quickly stalks down the hallway. "Bye, Austin! See you tomorrow!"

She's pretty sure she feels his eyes boring into her retreating back.

She doesn't look back to confirm her suspicions.


	6. Skip Day

Well, here's another chapter for all of you. Enjoy! Maybe. Hopefully.

* * *

The next morning starts off quietly enough as Ally walks through the halls of Marino High, on her way to her locker.

Just as she's about to turn the dial, her phone buzzes to life in her pocket. She has a strict no phones policy when she's in class, but doesn't mind checking it during passing periods. She ignores it in favor of grabbing her math book and frowns when it buzzes a second time.

She glances at the time, and since she has a few minutes to spare before the bell rings, she checks the two new messages, which came from an unknown number.

_Whats your first block?_

_This is Austin by the way WAT UUUP?_

Ally raises an eyebrow, wonders how he could have gotten her phone number. She quickly concludes that Trish must have given it to him at some point.

She dwells on this for a few seconds, thinks their newfound friendship may prove to be detrimental to her own sanity in the future. She purses her lips and decides on running in the opposite direction if they ever shenanigaize together.

She texts back, _'Pre-Calc with Kuhl. Why?'_

Ally waits at her locker for a response. She finally gives up when she has less than two minutes to get to class. With a frown, she makes her way down the hall, eyes peeled for a familiar mop of carefully disheveled blond hair.

* * *

Half-way through her Pre-Calc class, the door opens with a loud slam. Her entire class jumps, startled at the noise. One half stops in their diligent note-taking, the other half jolts awake from their naps.

Mr. Kuhl, a stern-looking man in his early thirties, stops and frowns in the middle of his lecture and turns toward the door.

Ally looks up from her notebook and watches in stunned silence as Austin marches down the aisle, heading straight toward her. Her eyes grow wider and wider as he passes each desk, staring intently at her.

'_Please don't stop at my desk. Please don't stop at my desk.'_

She sinks down in her seat and avoids his gaze. She even goes as far as putting up a hand to shield her eyes. Her attempts to appear invisible are for naught, as he stops at her desk anyway.

But oh no, he can't just stop there.

"Ally!" he breathes in what looks to be absolute relief. He gently grabs her by the arm and hulls her out of her chair. "C'mon, we've gotta go!"

"Wait—whoa—what?" she exclaims in confusion, standing up unwillingly due to his firm grip around her upper arm. She takes a moment to idly wonder if her arm is really tiny or his hand is just massively huge because she's pretty sure his fingers are wrapped completely around.

She deftly ignores all the wide-eyed stares and gaping mouths from her classmates.

He frowns at her. "Don't finish any of those sentences," he orders sternly.

Mr. Kuhl starts making his way toward the two teens, a displeased frown marring his already sour-looking features. "Mr. Moon, care to explain what's going on?" He glances at Ally, who looks frightened and confused, and knows she's the innocent in all of this. "Why do you have Miss Dawson out of her seat?" he pauses and continues in the same slow, disdainful drawl, "And more importantly, why are you disrupting my class?"

"I have an emergency and I requested for Ally to come help me. I have the counselor's permission," Austin says evenly, staring Mr. Kuhl down. "Here," he mutters, not even breaking eye contact as he reaches into his pocket to hand over a pink teacher's note.

Ally's eyes widen. "Emergency?" she squeaks nervously. "Austin, what's going on?"

"I need Ally's help" he says to her teacher, his tone quiet and pleading.

Mr. Kuhl finally shakes off his disbelief at Austin's sincere and heartfelt expression. With a curt nod, he relents, "Miss Dawson, you may go. I'll send the assignment to your student e-mail?"

"Yes, sir," she manages weakly, grabbing her bag. "Thank you, sir."

Austin hands her her math book and starts leading her to the front door, never once loosening his grip on her arm. "Thank you, Mr. Kuhl," he starts, "for understanding."

The teacher's eyes soften and he nods once more, this one offering silent support.

Once they exit the classroom, Ally immediately starts firing questions.

"Austin, what's wrong? Where are we going? What's happening?"

He doesn't look at her. "I'll tell you when we get to my car," he answers in a rush, his eyes are focused ahead and he doesn't slow down as Ally struggles to keep up.

Her eyes widen once more. "We're leaving the school?" she cries. "But what about my other classes?" And then her jaw drops. "_My perfect attendance record_," she suddenly blurts out, semi-hysterical.

That finally gets Austin to stop mid-stride. He gives her a strange look. "You serious?"

"I haven't missed a day since middle school!" she whines.

He opens and closes his mouth, his jaw working in frustration. "Fine," he bites out, exasperated. "I'll get the counselor to e-mail your teachers. Or something." He mumbles the last part under his breath.

She hears it anyway and zeroes in on it. "What do you mean '_or something_'?" she demands, her voice just shy of shrill.

Austin turns to completely look at her, running his hands over his face in frustration. "Ally, do you want to come with me or not?"

And then she remembers, this isn't about her or her perfect attendance. Austin, for whatever reason, has sought her out, asked for her support, wanted her help. She can't let him down by being a stickler for the rules now.

She swallows guiltily. "Okay," she murmurs, relaxing just the slightest, "Okay. I'm sorry. Let's go."

Austin sighs in relief. "Thank you. Now c'mon, I parked out front."

Ally follows Austin outside the school and into the parking lot across the street. They get into his LeBaron wordlessly and after Ally makes sure they're both buckled in, Austin drives out of the parking lot in silence. Ally bites her lip anxiously, not knowing where to begin or how to help out her blonde friend.

"Hey, Austin?" she begins hesitantly. When he glances at her in acknowledgment, she swallows anxiously and tentatively places a hand over his.

His eyebrows shoot up at the intimate contact, considering her thing for boundaries.

She ignores his questioning features and squeezes his hand. "Look, I don't know what you're going through right now—and you don't have to tell me until the time is right or when we get there or whatever—but, I just wanted you to know... I'm so honored that you wanted me to come along and—"

"Wait, Ally," he interrupts with a wince.

"—I'll do everything that I—"

"No, wait a sec—"

"—can to help you through whatever this is. So, Austin—"

"Ally, it's not—"

"—I'm just really touched that you trust me—"

"It's not a real emergency!" he finally shouts over her, wincing further into his seat.

She pauses to let his words filter through and she blinks at him as she runs over his declaration a second time. Surely, she has misheard him. "_What?_" she snaps harshly.

He works his jaw up and down silently, not quite knowing how to word the next part. "Weeell..." His eyes start to focus a little too hard on the road, determined to avoid looking at his confused passenger.

Her fingers clench around his hand he's starting to feel dangerous pressure from her nails. "What kind of _'emergency'_ is this, Austin?" she demands through gritted teeth, her voice low and even.

Austin turns, shooting her an overly wide and thoroughly nervous smile. "A hair emergency?" he tries.

"A _what_?" she hisses vehemently as she processes those words. What the hell even constitutes as a _hair emergency_, anyway?

The blonde chuckles and clears his throat uncomfortably. "Well, uh, I noticed this morning that I barely had enough hair product to style my hair so I figured I should probably go buy some. I mean, look! My hair looks horrible today!"

Ally gapes at him. "It looks the same!"

Austin actually looks offended. "No, it does _not!_ You take that back! I only had enough to do my bangs! The rest looks awful!"

"So... you made up some dramatic lie to get me out of class so I could go with you to buy some stupid hair gel because you couldn't wait until after school to style it?" she sums up in a whimper.

"... Yes?"

"My perfect attendance! Ruined!" she wails, her hands flying up to clutch at her hair in horror, "And all because you needed some stupid hair gel?!"

Austin almost feels bad about lying and tricking her into breaking a major school rule. "C'mon, it'll be fun!"

Ally suddenly sits straight up to undo her seat belt.

"Uh, Ally? What are you doing?" Austin asks with a confused frown, eyes darting over to meet her back.

"I'm going to do a Charlie Angels' roll out of your car," she replies in an eerily calm tone.

He's about to laugh but then he hears her unlock her car door. "Ally! What the hell?!" he splutters. He turns on his signal and pulls over to the shoulder of the road. He leans over her and slams the passenger door shut.

She whirls around, too furious to notice that their noses are practically touching and Austin's eyes have widened from the close proximity. "What is your problem?!" she yells.

He gapes at her, slack-jawed. "_My _problem?" he squeaks as he recoils a little, putting some distance between them. "You're the one that's trying to get yourself killed!"

The feisty brunette crosses her arms. "I was going to wait until you had slowed down!" she shoots back, as if it's obvious.

"Ally, c'mon—"

She stabs him in the chest with a finger, huffing angrily. "Oh, no! Don't you _dare_ 'Ally, c'mon' me! You pulled me out of my Pre-Calc class, lied to me, and tricked me into breaking a _gigantic_ school rule!" She's clearly livid and Austin just gulps, actually a bit terrified. "Why couldn't you just go on this stupid hair emergency trip on your own, anyway? Why did you have to take me along?"

He pouts. "I just wanted some company and I figured you'd want to have some fun."

She looks at him through narrowed eyes. "You think rule-breaking and class-skipping is fun?"

The rebellious teen looks at his straight-laced friend incredulously. Really? She has to ask?

Austin rolls his eyes. "Ally, c'mon—!"

"Uh-uh! No 'Ally, c'mon'ing!" she bitterly reminds him.

He takes a deep breath and places his hands on her shoulders. Her eyes fly to his hands and she gives him a glare. "Ally," he states, ignoring the fact that he's invading her personal space yet again. "I've _already_ gotten you out of class. You're _already_ here, with me, in my car. We're half-way to the store at this point. You may as well whole-ass this skip day instead of half-assing it and going back."

Her glare evens out to a flat stare. "Seriously?" she deadpans. "That's your argument?"

"It's better to whole-ass one thing instead of half-assing two," he replies with the utmost seriousness.

Ally chews on her lip, closes her eyes, and realizes with a sinking feeling that he has a point. She can either go with him, try to have some fun, or awkwardly go back to class and somehow explain her reappearance. Her shoulders sag under his hands and she snaps her eyes open. "Fine, _fine!_" her voice comes out just short of shrill, but it's what Austin wants to hear.

"Yes! You are _awesome!_" Austin cheers, moving in for a hug.

"No hugs when we're breaking rules," Ally mumbles flatly, leaning toward the passenger door as she places a hand on his chest to stop him from coming any closer.

He rolls his eyes but doesn't push his luck as he starts the car back up again. "This is going to be fun! Trust me!" he says confidently, still not fully aware of Ally's poor soul dying from the prospect of breaking such a big school rule.

She groans and slumps in her seat, ignoring him the rest of the way.

* * *

"Hmm..." the blond boy murmurs thoughtfully as he looks at all the different products for styling hair. His eyes narrow in concentration as continues examining all the possible options.

Ally hangs back, clearly annoyed that he can't seem to make up his mind. She checks the time on her cellphone and rolls her eyes when she sees that they've spent at least fifteen minutes in the hair aisle. She works her jaw in irritation, and refuses to say anything to him, still stubbornly trying to give him the silent treatment.

So much for that fun, a voice in her head laughs bitterly.

"I don't know whether I should try something new or just stick to the one I've been using for a few months," he mumbles quietly, mostly to himself.

She chews on the inside of her cheek and plays with her brown locks to keep her hands busy, terrified that she will start pelting the styling products at his stupid blond head.

"Ally?" Austin finally sighs, holding up two small containers, weighing one in each hand. "Which one do you think I should get?"

She looks at him with dead eyes and silently smacks both products out of his hands, having still not forgiven him for the stunt he had pulled.

They both watch as the round containers roll about on the floor for a moment.

When they come to a stop, Austin looks back up at her and nods gratefully. "You're right. I should just get the one I have at home that works on wet hair, too. You never know when you're in a hurry and don't have time to dry your hair after a shower." He turns back to the shelf and picks up a third container and smiles at her. "Well! I'm done here!"

She glares at him and starts marching down the aisle in an exasperated huff.

Austin's smile falters. "You're still mad at me," he suddenly blurts out, sounding mildly dejected. He had been so engrossed with picking the right stuff for his hair that he hadn't realized the silent treatment she'd been giving him. He hurries along a few paces ahead of her and then spins around, stopping in front of her so that they're face to face.

Ally blinks in surprise at his sudden appearance in front of her but then immediately scowls. With a roll of her eyes, she moves to shoulder pass him.

Austin, however, quickly realizes this and mirrors her. She glares harder at him and shuffles to the other side. He blocks her again and they continue like this for a few more seconds.

The frustrated brunette finally stops and crosses her arms. She lifts her eyebrow in a silent question, waiting for some sort of apology or explanation.

"I know you're mad. But c'mon, the silent treatment? Really?" And then he gives her a judgmental look.

This is not what Ally wants to hear. She rolls her eyes and exhales noisily through her nose and moves to walk around him again.

He flinches and moves in front of her again. "Okay, okay! So that was a dumb thing to say. I'm sorry!" he apologizes quickly.

She reaches up and massages her temples. "Austin," she starts tiredly, "look, just take me back to school, alright? I can attend the rest of my classes so you won't have to find excuses for me. And you should just call one of your friends to skip the rest of the day with you." She pauses. "Well, you should just _attend_ the rest of your classes, but whatever."

Austin frowns. "I didn't want to skip with them."

"You were just afraid that they'd make fun of you for wanting to buy hair products."

He gives her a playfully affectionate look. "See? This is why I wanted to skip with _you_. You know know me so well."

The corner of her lip twitches but purses them to keep from smiling. "But seriously. Why didn't you ask one of them?" she presses, eying him curiously.

He shrugs noncommittally. "They break rules and skip all the time. You, however, don't seem like the type."

"Gee. Am I that obvious?" she deadpans.

Austin rolls his eyes. "I just thought it'd be fun to hang out for a day. Get to know each other a little," he finally says with a shrug.

She raises a suspicious eyebrow. "Really?"

He regards her with a more serious look. "And maybe you could use a break from school, you know?"

She sighs but finally lessens her glare. "I don't need a break." She frowns at him. "Besides, what made you think that, anyway?

His eyes flash with annoyance and he scowls. "Fine. I'll take you back when lunch is over, then," he mutters.

She blinks in confusion. "Why after—?" And then it dawns on her, why he'd want to wait until after lunch and why he thought she'd want a break from school. An angry blonde and a fierce snarl entered her mind's eye. "Austin... are you... trying to protect me from Tilly?" she asks slowly.

He hesitates as she looks at him suspiciously. "It's just—aren't you tired of her? And you mentioned needing a break from her yesterday and she's just so completely annoy—"

Ally quiets him by placing a gentle hand on his forearm. She waits until his eyes jump from her hand back up to her face. "Austin," she says softly, "Trust me, I've learned how to deal with Tilly. It's sweet that you're helping me avoid her, but really. I can handle it."

"Because you can fight your own battles?"

Ally keeps a straight face as she echoes, "Because I can fight my own battles."

And then she gives him her first smile of the day and he feels like he's finally taking a breath of fresh air.

She takes her hand off his forearm and points to the container in his grasp with. "Now, would you hurry up and pay for that so we can go?" she asks with a brow raising high in annoyance.

Austin nods and gives her a quick grin. "You sure you don't want to get anything for yourself while we're here?" He reaches out to twirl a lock of her perfectly curled hair around a finger. "You and I both know these aren't natural curls." He pulls the lock a little, tugging her face closer to his in the process as his grin widens.

She rolls her eyes and swats at his hand. She quickly straightens up to put more distance between them. "Austin! Con—"

"—tract. Yeah, yeah. I know."

* * *

"Okay," Austin sighs as he closes the door on the driver's side and waits for Ally as she slides into the seat. "So, back to the school, then?" he continues in a slightly resigned manner as he starts up his car.

"Actually..." she trails off in a quiet, unsure voice.

He blinks at her sudden hesitation. "What?" he asks as he turns to her curiously.

She opens her mouth and closes it quickly. "Um..."

He quirks a brow at her. "What is it?"

She takes a deep, calming breath and screws her eyes shut. "I'll skip the rest of my classes with you." The words rush out of her in a breathless mess but she knows Austin heard and understood every last bit of it. She hears an excited and sharp intake of breath and she screws her eyes shut tighter as she hurries to hold up her hands. "But no hugging!" She hears his movements come to a stop and only then does she slowly open up her eyes. "And no more rule-breaking on top of the school-skipping!" she says.

Austin grins toothily at her and nods. "Sure, sure. Whatever you want," he says airily. He finally drives out of the parking lot and turns to her briefly. "Well, where to next?"

She blinks owlishly at him and points at finger at herself. "Me?"

"No, the hobo in my backseat."

"Huh. So that's where that smell's coming from..."

He throws her an offended glare. "Whoa, hey. The LeBaron does not _smell_, alright? She is clean and tidy and very well taken care of." He takes the little air freshener attached to the AC vent and waves it around in the general vicinity of her face while still managing to keep his eyes on the road. "Hobos smell like dirt and sadness. You smell this? This smells like a _Hawaiian dream_, okay? The LeBaron does not smell like dirt and sadness. It smells like a—"

"Hawaiian dream, got it," Ally interrupts with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. She snatches the little thing out of his hand and quickly reattaches the thing to the AC vent.

Yeah, okay, it does smell pretty nice, but she's not going to let him know that.

"Good," Austin mutters with a firm, pleased nod. "Well, you pick a place to go to yet?"

Ally shrugs nonchalantly. "I don't know," she answers as she looks out the window and watches the scenery pass by.

He frowns, clearly not pleased with her answer. "You got any favorite spots?"

"School, home, and work," she says in a droll voice.

"Okay," he says. "Now seriously."

Ally throws her hands up in the air, exasperated. "The library, then!"

Austin gives her an incredulous look. "Oh my God," he mutters in honest disbelief. "Are you currently possessed by the soul of a ninety year old woman or something?"

Ally crosses her arms and glares at him. "Okay, fine, then you pick a spot!"

* * *

"If I have the spirit of a ninety year old woman, then you're clearly possessed by a five year old _child_," she grumbles with her forehead pressing against the still chain of the swing she's currently slumped in. Her eyes dart up to follow the dangerously high back-and-forth of Austin in his swing right next to her.

The soaring blond lets out an actual _giggle_ right before he starts falling back, his legs tucked under. He turns to Ally as he passes her, keeps his eyes on her as he kicks forward to fly ahead again. "I can push ya if you want!" he offers with a grin.

Ally sighs and scoots ahead a few inches and lifts her feet off the ground so she'll swing back just a little. "Yay," she says in a voice full of lead.

"Oh, boo!" Austin jeers obnoxiously.

She turns to glare at him, but he's already skidding to a stop. She blinks at him in confusion. "Why'd you stop?"

He rolls his eyes and runs towards her, coming to a stop behind her. "Okay, I'm going to push you and you're going to try to remember that you're not actually ninety years old."

Ally makes an incorrect buzzer noise as she starts using her feet to scoot along the ground again. "You'd be breaching the contract," she says. "I'll just do my own swinging."

Austin rolls his eyes but relents and walks over to one of the poles attached to the swing set. He leans against it and watches her as she finally begins to swing back and forth. He grins a little as he watches her pick up in speed and momentum.

And finally, as she's moving forward, a gust of wind pulls back her hair and she can't help the laugh that escapes her throat. "Okay!" she shouts with an exhilarated laugh, sounding a little breathless as she falls backwards. "So maybe I forgot how fun swings can be," she admits as she grins widely at him.

"You feel like you're flying yet?" he calls jokingly as he watches her continue with a face-splitting grin, rosy cheeks, and windswept hair.

"As free as a bird!" she jokes back, laughing even louder at their corny lines.

Austin joins in on the laughter and times it right so he can jog in front of her to get to his swing. He starts move forward, even though his focus is purely on Ally and the impressive heights she's gotten to, when she calls for his attention. Luckily, she's staring straight ahead so she doesn't notice that he's already staring at her.

She turns to look at him with a smirk. "Betcha can't swing higher than me!"

A spark of challenge ignites in his eyes and he kicks off the ground. "Oh, Dawson, you're playin' a dangerous game here," he says with a shake of his head as he swings furiously to catch up to her.

The smile on his face softens as he listens to her laughter filling the silent and empty park.

* * *

"Oh, man, I didn't realize swinging could be so tough," Ally pants as she leans against a tree.

(They ended up calling it a tie, although Austin claimed that when they're moving forward, he's up further than she is. She claimed that his freakishly long legs shouldn't count against her normal, shorter ones.)

Austin stares at her, touches of amusement and worry apparent in his features. "Wow, you outta shape there, Ally?"

She waves him off and shakes her head a little. "Nope, nope. I'm fine!" She runs a hand through her hair and sighs, still needing a moment to catch her breath. "Maybe a glass of water?"

He laughs. "Why don't we just go for lunch?" he suggests. He points ahead of them and says, "There are a few food venders right here in the park. Why don't we just take a walk and see what there is?"

Ally tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and smiles. "That actually sounds really good."

They begin their first lap around the park in silence, when Austin finally decides to speak up.

"Uh, sorry I hijacked you from your Pre-Calc class. And then tricked you into coming with me," he mutters after a clearing of throat.

She gives him an amused look. "You meant well... I think. By trying to help me avoid Tilly, I mean."

"I'm still sorry," he says with a wince.

Ally chuckles slightly at his sheepish apology. "Well, a lovely stroll through the park is making up for the hijacking," she murmurs as she takes a deep breath of fresh air. "Although, next time, could you warn me first?"

He perks up. "There's going to be a next time?" he asks hopefully.

"No. I'm never skipping again," she states, very matter-of-factly. He starts to look disappointed, when she says, "I meant... you know... if you wanted to hang out," she coughs. "Just... you can ask me, you know. We're friends, right?" she tacks on with a shy smile and an embarrassed crinkle of her nose.

Austin laughs at her unsure expression. "You always sound like you're in pain when you say that we're friends," he says with a shake of his head.

She suddenly looks guilty. "It's weird!"

"Is not," he grins.

"Is too!"

His grin widens, turns teasing as it does. "Says the girl that drew up a _friendship contract_."

She rolls her eyes and gestures emphatically at him, coming to a stop. Austin follows suit and stares at her curiously. "You're popular and you've got all these friends and you—you're _you!_ I'm boring and drab and I like libraries and reading and I follow all the rules and God, don't I just _bore _you?"

Austin's eyebrows shoot up and he regards her with an amused expression. "No, you don't," he finally say, in a slow, reassuring tone accompanied with a small smile.

Ally's shoulders sag and she exhales noisily through her mouth. Her eyes dart around the park and then meet his again. She stares him down and crosses her arms. "You don't think I'm boring?" she questions, sounding incredulous.

"So you like to read and follow rules. That's not a big deal."

"I also cloud-watch, basket-weave, and practice calligraphy," she admits, in a voice that silently warns him that if he teases her, there _will _be repercussions.

Austin blinks twice in confusion at that. "What?"

Ally glares at him a bit. "Don't judge me."

Austin rolls his eyes. "Okay, whatever. So you're into really lame things—"

"Hey!"

"—but you're fun and interesting to talk to and if I thought you were boring, I wouldn't be trying so hard to get to you know you, alright?" And then he gives an agitated sigh and locks gazes with her. "So maybe you could give me a chance, you know?"

She blinks rapidly and stares back, baffled and at a loss of words. "I am," she says weakly.

Austin rolls his eyes. "At this point, you're pretty much tolerating me. Do you even care about getting to know me? Do you even want to?" he asks challengingly. "Because if you honestly don't, then regardless of that dumb contract, this isn't going to work."

"Are you going to let me?"

He frowns. "What do you mean?"

Ally's eyes dart back and forth as she studies his features. "Okay, say I tried. Say I wanted to ask you questions and get to know you better. Would you be willing to open to me?"

Austin shrugs. "That's going to have to be a two-way street, Ally," he says honestly. He looks at her coolly. "But as of right now, I don't think you'd be willing to tell me anything."

Ally's shoulder shrugs up and down. "I just told you a whole bunch of my weird hobbies." She throws him an annoyed look. "All I know about you is your cheerleader fetish and your tendency to party."

"I date cheerleaders because I have the attention span of a gnat," he states flatly. "I don't date other girls because I just make-out with them when I go to the occasional—yeah, _occasional_—party. Dating them won't last long because I usually lose interest by the time I'm wiping the smeared lip gloss off my face. Cheerleaders last a bit longer because I think they're hot." He shrugs noncommittally. "Something about the skirts and knowing how flexible they are, I guess."

Ally stares at him blankly, momentarily stunned by his blunt honesty. "Oh."

"Yeah," he says curtly.

She shifts her weight from foot to foot uncomfortably. "You could just wait until a girl you actually like comes along," she points out in a knowing voice.

He snorts. "I am way too hot and way too hormonal for that."

"Another stellar sampling of that Moon modesty," she grumbles under her breath. And then she rolls her eyes so hard, she's surprised they stay in their sockets.

Austin smirks easily at her. "Oh, c'mon, Ally, you've got working eyes. You don't think I'm hot?"

"I think that if you think you're hot, then that's all you need. Why does my opinion matter?" she mutters as she begins walking again.

"That wasn't a no," he points out as he hurries a bit to catch up so that they're walking side by side.

"Definitely not a yes, either," she snaps irritably.

Austin winces at the annoyance in her tone. "Okay, that was a bad joke, I'm sorry," he says sincerely, ending his apology with a mild sigh.

Ally pauses mid-step, so briefly that Austin barely even notices, before continuing again. "Look, how about the next time you make a joke like that, I'll do my best to shrug it off instead of making you feel like a jerk about it?" She turns to him and pokes him in the arm as they both come to another stop. "But you've got to promise that you'll at least _try _to stop making them, alright?" Her eyes narrow and she adds, "Because I don't think you've been doing a whole lot of trying."

He gives her sheepish look. "I'm kind of a natural flirt," he says in way of explanation.

Ally rolls her eyes. "I've noticed," she replies dryly.

Austin places a hand on his chest. "Okay, I solemnly swear that I will do my best to keep from making inappropriate commentary that will make you, Ally Dawson, uncomfortable. And to keep my flirting to a minimum—_completely_ nonexistent, of course," he finishes, quickly changing his tune due to the glare that she has directed at him.

"I really want to roll my eyes at you again, but I'm sincerely afraid they'll actually fall out of my sockets if I do it one more time."

"I thought that was pretty good."

Ally sighs and closes her eyes, muttering a quick prayer for patience. "Let's just go get some hotdogs from that vendor up ahead."

"... My treat?"

"That's the least you can do, yeah."

* * *

"So now what?" Ally asks as she finishes the last bite of her hotdog. She brushes the crumbs off her lap and turns to Austin on the bench they're currently sharing.

Austin shrugs and swallows a bite of his second hotdog. "I can take you to the library now if you really want," he teases.

"I'll take you up on that offer and you'll be bored out of your mind while I read my way through a 500 page book," she warns.

Austin frowns and rethinks his comment. "Is it too late to take back that offer?" he asks feebly.

Ally laughs and shakes her head. "I wouldn't put you through that," she promises with a small smile.

Austin grins and tells her, "Good," before taking the last bite of his final hotdog.

"Besides, knowing you, you'd probably start pestering me the second I opened up the book," she says dryly.

"And knowing _you_, you'd probably just drop that sure to be heavy, hard cover and leather bound 500 page book on my head."

"Only if there were no witnesses," she says with an innocent smile.

He blinks blankly at her. "Remind me never go to libraries with you."

Ally chuckles and checks the time on her phone. "So the library's out, but there's still two hours left before school gets out."

He wrinkles his nose. "You wanna go back?"

She shakes her head. "Nah, there's not point in going back for a block and a half," she sighs. "But I was wondering... how on earth did you get that pass? The one that you showed Mr. Kuhl? And how are you going to get us excused?"

Austin suddenly stills and he averts his gaze. He clears his throat a little and coughs in a small, tiny voice, "Promise not to be mad?"

Ally's eyebrows furrow. "What, did you blackmail a teacher or something?"

He rolls his eyes. "No, nothing that extreme," he snorts. He hesitates for a moment but then quickly shoves a hand in his pocket and digs around, before he finally pulls out a little notepad, full of familiar pink slips.

Her jaw drops a little. "Is that...?" She knows she sounds awed and impressed, but she really can't help it.

He winces guiltily at the pad of pink teacher's notes. "I stole it a while back when the secretaries were busy and left me waiting in the office."

She shakes her head, a sly little smile starting on her lips, in spite of herself. "Okay, that's pretty smart. You write up your own excuses, forge a signature, and that's how you get away with everything," she concludes, still impressed.

He lets out a sigh of relief. "Oh, man, I thought you'd be furious!" he chuckles. "I thought you'd start preaching about morals and rules and whatever else."

"I still totally could," she points out.

Austin covers his ears childishly. "Go ahead."

Ally rolls her eyes and points at the little notepad. "You better make up some seriously good excuses for me to have missed class, Austin."

He shrugs. "I was just going to write down ridiculous excuses like 'fighting crime in LA', 'got attacked by wolverines', and 'learning how to whittle presidential figurines out of bars of soap' or something."

She points at him with bright eyes. "Ooh! That last one sounded kinda fun!"

Austin stares at her flatly. "That's your idea of fun?" he asks dubiously.

Ally makes a dainty, little clearing noise in the very back of her throat and quickly shakes her head. "No, of course not," she says with an awkward laugh and sidelong glance.

"No, no, don't let me stop you from whittling Lincoln out of some soap," he says humorously.

She makes a loud, scoffing noise. "Please, I'd clearly be whittling Teddy Roosevelt. C'mon, Austin, keep up."

"Ally, the lameness of the conversation is about to put me to sleep. Please change the topic before I pass out on you."

"Go ahead, I'll just leave you here for the pigeons to poop on."

"Ha ha ha," he laughs sarcastically. But he none-to-subtly covers his hair and surreptitiously looks up to the sky to make sure there aren't any birds circling around over head.

"Austin, we're pigeon-free; your precious hair is safe."

He slowly lowers his hand from his hair and looks at her. "You can never be too safe," he says seriously.

She laughs and shakes her head. "Hey, Austin," she begins in a slow voice.

He gives her an odd look when she doesn't continue. "What?" he asks curiously.

She flashes him a brilliant smile before rocketing off the bench. "Race you to the swings!" she shouts over her shoulder to a confused Austin.

"Hey, you cheat!" he sputters loudly. It takes him a few seconds before he's up and running after her.

Ally laughs, loud and bright, as she looks behind her. "Hey, I needed a head start!" she insists with a wide smile. "Your legs are freakishly long!"

"Yours are just freakishly short!" he retorts, but he's laughing along with her, just as loud and bright. He's just about to catch up, running alongside her, when, to his surprise, she rushes ahead in a little burst of speed and he just stares after her, stunned.

"How the hell do you run in those wedges?!"

* * *

"Clearly, I can't run in these wedges."

"You did really well, though," Austin says encouragingly. "Well, up until you tripped over that twig, anyway."

"Austin, it was a giant branch."

"... So that's the story, then?"

Ally sighs irritably and glares down at her shoes as Austin helps her hobble to his car. "I'm retiring you guys. You used to be my favorite, but not any more," she grumbles at them.

Their arms are around each others' waist and Ally is doing her best to channel all her focus into hating her shoes (oh, who is she kidding, these aqua wedges will be back on her feet by the end of next week). It's a much easier thing to think about instead of Austin's body pressed into her side and his fingers curled around her waist.

He had offered a piggy back ride but quickly retracted it at her withering glare.

If anyone's asking, the heat in her cheeks is due to embarrassment over her wipeout, not their close proximity and the way he's being so gentle and considerate of her.

"Hey, we're almost there," he murmurs quietly into her ear. "You holding up okay?"

"It's a small sprain, Austin. It's not amputated or anything."

He chuckles at her annoyance. "Hey, I didn't throw that twig-branch out in front of you okay?"

They're in the parking lot and she sighs for the umpteenth time. "I thought I got over my klutzy phase ages ago," she grumbles with a pout.

Austin knows he should be nice and not further torture her from her embarrassing fall, but he really can't help the laugh that bubbles up out of his throat. "You went down pretty hard," he teases as he replays the scene of her yelping and crashing to the ground in his mind's eye. He stares down at her with a toothy grin.

She turns and looks up at him with a half-hearted glare. "I'm glad I could provide you with some entertainment."

He snickers. "I knew skipping class with you would be a good idea."

Ally rolls her eyes but feels a sense of relief wash over her when they finally reach his car. Austin helps her over to the passenger's seat and then opens the door for her. She slides into the seat and thanks him. He grins, tells her, "No problem," and shuts the door for her.

Austin gets into the driver's seat and looks over her. "That bum ankle gonna put a damper on your evening?"

She snorts and looks at him flatly. "Well, my evening was going to consist of sitting and reading and homework, so I actually don't think this changes anything."

"On a Friday night?" he asks incredulously.

She rolls her eyes. "I know. A teenager staying in on a Friday night. It's a cultural phenomenon," she says dryly.

He chuckles and shakes his head. "So that party we met at was really your first high school party, huh?" He looks over at her. "Did you know it would be the start of a beautiful friendship?" he asks with a cheesy grin.

She raises an eyebrow. "Yeaaah," she says in slow drawl. "That's the word I'd use..."

Austin turns to her with an impish smile and twinkling eyes. "Trust me, Ally. This is only the beginning," he says in a low voice that sounds like he knows far too much.

She's not too keen on the skip in her heartbeat.

She finds herself whispering, "Can't wait," anyway.

It doesn't come out nearly as sarcastic as she'd intended.


End file.
